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

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