Day 270 - 28 Jun 96 - Page 44
1 statement is the original oral statement containing the
2 relevant fact or facts.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. I did not ask you the final paragraph,
5 which I think is the -----
6
7 MR. RAMPTON: No. My Lord, it goes on a for a bit. This is
8 obviously a report, "I am told that the SIS procedures" and
9 so on and so forth. Then she goes on at the end of that
10 first sentence to what is a mixture of hearsay and
11 inadmissible opinion or comment, which, again, in the mouth
12 of a journalist is fair enough but not in the mouth of
13 somebody purporting to give in evidence in this court.
14
15 There is some stuff about the Jack-In-The-Box case which,
16 again, she is, quite legitimately as a journalist,
17 concerned about, but she has no business telling your
18 Lordship about it because she was not involved in it and
19 she is not a scientist.
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is all the same hearsay basically, is it
22 not?
23
24 MR. RAMPTON: It is.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What about (10)?
27
28 MR. RAMPTON: I have not got numbers.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is the last paragraph.
31
32 MR. RAMPTON: That is fine but, as I say, if you put that
33 together with the little bits that are left, if I am right
34 -- I do not mind if Mr. Morris wants to stand up and read
35 those little bits -----
36
37 MR. MORRIS: Which bit are we talking about here?
38
39 MR. RAMPTON: The residual chunks amount to nothing, but that is
40 perhaps a matter for me to comment on.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That would depend on whether Ms. Steel and
43 Mr. Morris wanted to read them.
44
45 MR. RAMPTON: Yes. My Lord, I do not think there is anything
46 else I need to say. It is a submission which I have made
47 before in the course of this case on a number of occasions.
48
49 MR. MORRIS: First of all, we did not really have any advance
50 notice -- and I do not blame Mr. Rampton for that -- that
51 this was going to be a submission. As there had been no
52 objection, and we did serve the Civil Evidence Act on 2nd
53 May -----
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That does not matter because all that is
56 happening is the procedure, which we have followed
57 throughout the trial, is being taken that since you want to
58 read things out rather than take them as read Mr. Rampton,
59 as you come to read them, is entitled to take any objection
60 to their admissibility. I then decide whether they are
