Day 198 - 08 Dec 95 - Page 26


     
     1
     2   Q.   Did you achieve any non-commissioned rank?
     3        A.  I was a full corporal when I came out.
     4
     5   Q.   Yes, thank you.  Thank you, Mr. Coton.  It is just possible
     6        that Mr. Morris will ask you to come back in the new year,
     7        depending on what further evidence there is, but you are
     8        certainly released for the time being.
     9
    10                        (The witness withdrew)
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What can we usefully do now?
    13
    14   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, there is a question which I have given
    15        some thought to -- we all have on this side of the court --
    16        as to the implications of Mr. Coton's evidence for the
    17        question of whether we should invite your Lordship to hear
    18        further evidence from our side.
    19
    20        I put it that way because in a sense it is not really an
    21        application to call rebuttal evidence for this reason,
    22        because Mr. Coton's statement, first statement, arrived in
    23        court, as it were, long after my Colchester witnesses had
    24        given their evidence.  They, of course, dealt with
    25        exclusively the matters raised by the Defendants' original
    26        six Colchester witnesses, all of whom dealt with the time
    27        when Mr. Davis was the Manager.
    28
    29        What emerged, my Lord, from (and I put it in different
    30        categories in the hope it may help your Lordship)
    31        Mr. Coton's evidence, partly from what he said in his
    32        written statement, but partly also from what he said in the
    33        witness box, was the allegation of docking hours which is a
    34        new allegation not made by any of the earlier Colchester
    35        witnesses, made for the first time by Mr. Coton.  Your
    36        Lordship may think it is actually quite a serious
    37        allegation.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is the most serious of the lot, it seems
    40        to me.
    41
    42   MR. RAMPTON:  I respectfully agree with your Lordship.  That, of
    43        course, was never put to Mr. Davis or Mr. Stanton.
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I was going to ask, because I have not gone
    46        back through their evidence, whether that was actually put
    47        to them.
    48
    49   MR. RAMPTON:  It was not -- I have and it was not.  Because, to
    50        be fair to the Defendants, they did not know about it. 
    51        They could not have known about it ------ 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  They gave their evidence early in July and
    54        they did not have Mr. Coton's statement until ---
    55
    56   MR. RAMPTON:  No, that is right, they did not ---
    57
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  -- late October.
    59
    60   MR. RAMPTON:  -- apparently until 25th October.  Although they

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