Day 070 - 20 Dec 94 - Page 41
1 depending on the means taken, unlawful. What we should do
2 is try to provide you with the information you need,
3 according to the short judgment I have just given, without
4 taking that unnecessary risk.
5
6 I am at the moment just asking for your comments in
7 relation to that. It might be that once the identity is
8 there, it will just be bound to come out in the course of
9 evidence, anyway, in due course.
10
11 I am not canvassing a point of view. I am putting it to
12 you, so that you can say anything you wish to say.
13
14 MS. STEEL: To be honest, I do not think we understood. I find
15 it a bit confusing.
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is being said is that, unless I put some
18 condition on the disclosure of the identity of particular
19 slaughterhouses, the suggestion is that you will publish
20 the identity of the slaughterhouse and people may use that
21 information to attack the slaughterhouses. That is what
22 I infer from what Mr. Rampton said, because he started what
23 he had to say by reference to a case reported in the paper
24 this morning, where a man was sentenced to 14 years'
25 imprisonment for offences to which he pleaded guilty.
26
27 MS. STEEL: The bit I did not understand was the bit about
28 disclosing the name, but it remaining confidential. I did
29 not understand what he was trying to say about that.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: As I understood it, that it only be used for
32 the purposes of this litigation, this particular action.
33
34 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, it would be absolutely sterile to have an
35 obligation of confidence which prevented the information
36 going anywhere but the Defendants, because then they could
37 not make any useful enquiries. What I am very anxious
38 about is that what has been going on so far with
39 proceedings in this court should not happen and that the
40 identity should not be broadcast. That is not necessary.
41
42 MR. MORRIS: Our understanding is that the hearing is a public
43 place, the court is a public place, and the words said in a
44 public place are available to the public. The transcripts
45 can be purchased by the press, and I know cases where they
46 have been -- not from us -- purchased from a source, so far
47 as I know.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You may run into difficulty if you make
50 photocopies and hand them out, because that would be breach
51 of copyright.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: They are 80 pages long, anyway, so it would be
54 ridiculous.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All I am asking you to consider is whether
57 you are content that I make it a condition, or that I ask
58 you to undertake to me not to disclose the identity of the
59 slaughterhouse, save for the purposes of the conduct of
60 this action. It means that if you want someone to go and
