Day 263 - 14 Jun 96 - Page 68
1 of course be dated that night, but I cannot recall whether,
2 as I said before, whether I did that or whether I went home
3 that night and completed it, or whether -----
4
5 MR. MORRIS: It seems likely that you did it the next day?
6 A. OK.
7
8 Q. So, is it accepted that you have a particularly astounding
9 memory, some kind of medical condition which gives
10 you -----
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, do not. You must -----
13
14 MR. MORRIS: I am trying to explain. Some people have
15 absolutely astounding -----
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Be sensible about it. You may have a good
18 point, but you do not improve it by ---
19
20 MR. MORRIS: (To the witness) Have you ever been told
21 that -----
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- talking about a medical condition which
24 gives you an extraordinarily good memory.
25
26 MR. MORRIS: Have you ever been defined as having an
27 extraordinary total recall memory at any time in your life?
28 A. No, I have not. But I know I went out, as I always do,
29 with the intention of doing a good job, and I would have
30 concentrated particularly hard at that meeting for any
31 information of value.
32
33 Q. The reality is, is it not, Mr. Russell, that either you
34 have forgotten or you are lying about the fact that you did
35 not have a notebook?
36 A. Neither of those.
37
38 MS. STEEL: There is one other possibility, actually. Did you
39 take all these letters that have been referred to and keep
40 them for yourself or hand them into the agency?
41 A. Are you talking about the leaflets?
42
43 Q. No, the letters, the letter from the poll tax rioters
44 support group, the open letter from the Archbishop Tutu,
45 the invitation from the Prisoners of Conscience, a cheque
46 from War Resisters in North America, and so on. You did
47 not take all of those letters, did you, for the
48 purposes -----
49 A. No. What does occur to me, though, is that I took
50 quite a lot of leaflets, and it may be that I was reminded
51 of pieces of the meeting from information on the leaflets.
52 But I have not had time to go through all those leaflets
53 and actually compare. But I think any feat of memory might
54 be partially explained by help from those leaflets.
55
56 MR. MORRIS: And all the leaflets that you took are attached to
57 your statement ---
58 A. Yes.
59
60 Q. -- is that correct? Can you just look at the leaflets
