Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 29


     
     1        Mr. Skehel before he even got going?
     2
     3   MR. MORRIS:  Well .....
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am surprised if that is your case.
     6
     7   MR. MORRIS:  Why would he be avoiding you unless -- hang on a
     8        second -- you are going down to the store, you say, to give
     9        bundles of help and support to a Store Manager; is that
    10        correct?
    11        A.  I would certainly -- I go to -- I am not, sort of, you
    12        know, I do not think I have been glib in any way.  I think
    13        that I genuinely would go to a restaurant to help the
    14        management.  That was my responsibility.  That was my job.
    15
    16   Q.   You said you had bent over backwards to be friendly with
    17        Mr. Coton?
    18        A.  To be friendly and to help.
    19
    20   Q.   And to help.  So, basically, this thing about you saying,
    21        "he could have been avoiding me", is really just put in
    22        there as another way of attacking Ray Coton; why would he
    23        want to avoid you?
    24        A.  Well, because I wrote this statement some time after he
    25        was my Supervisor  -- he was my subordinate and, you know,
    26        I was discussing it, and it did occur to me at the time on
    27        some occasions, "Is this guy avoiding me?"  You know, is
    28        this something -- it was a very small thing that did occur
    29        to me maybe once or twice, is he avoiding me? I actually
    30        discounted it, I mean.
    31
    32   Q.   So you discounted it, but you felt it was important to put
    33        it in your statement because it attacks Ray Coton which is
    34        what you are here to do, is it not?
    35        A.  I am here to -- I understand I am here to say how it
    36        was from my point of view when I was the Supervisor of the
    37        Colchester restaurant.  Ray Coton has made some untrue
    38        statements about me in his statement and I am here, as
    39        I understand it, from my point of view, to put the record
    40        straight, and the record -- and the truth is that my
    41        relationship, I did everything in my power to foster a good
    42        relationship with Ray Coton when I was the Supervisor.
    43
    44        At times when I was the Supervisor it did occur to me once
    45        or twice, it did occur to me that he could have been
    46        avoiding me and, you know, I say that in the context that
    47        I cannot help feeling with the benefit of hindsight that he
    48        wanted to leave the Company, and it may be that he had
    49        given up and was simply pretending to be a Manager.  You
    50        know, we found out that he applied for that job in January 
    51        and, perhaps, he was just sitting it out and I was ----- 
    52 
    53   Q.   He said in the witness box, I believe, from memory, that he
    54        could not remember the exact date he applied.  It was
    55        around the time you became Supervisor.  I do not know if it
    56        was before.  I cannot remember what Ray Coton said.
    57
    58   MR. RAMPTON:  I can.
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  In any event, it was around the turn of the

Prev Next Index