Day 003 - 30 Jun 94 - Page 43
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
2 MR. RAMPTON: On the other hand, I have not more myself with
Mr. Preston than about another 20 minutes. I know your
3 Lordship has it in mind that it may be possible for the
defendants to defer some of their cross-examination of
4 Mr. Preston until another occasion. I am entirely in your
Lordship's hands so long as I can be sure I get
5 Mr. Beavers, if it is humanly possible -- if it is not it
is not -- on to a plane on Saturday.
6
MR. JUSTICE BELL: What occurs to me we might do is in that
7 case go on to finish Mr. Preston in chief so that would be
Mr. Preston's evidence in answer to Mr. Rampton's
8 questions. The suggestion then is that we call
Mr. Beavers so that he can go back to America, then you
9 can cross-examine Mr. Beavers to such extent as you want
to and then Mr. Preston will come back into the witness
10 box.
11 MISS STEEL: Can we have five minutes to discuss it, please?
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
13 MR. RAMPTON: Does your Lordship have it in mind that we should
finish Mr. Preston tonight? I am quite happy to do so.
14
MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is what I was thinking of. It would
15 not trouble you if Mr. Preston left rainforests to when he
came back into the witness box, or would you rather hear
16 that tonight? The advantage is this if you hear
rainforests from Mr. Preston tonight, that you have heard
17 all Mr. Preston's evidence which you might want to
cross-examine on, do you understand?
18
MISS STEEL: I think we are happy for it to be heard tonight,
19 but if a decision has been made about when we are going to
cross-examine then we would like time to discuss that.
20
MR. RAMPTON: On my plan they would not be cross-examining
21 Mr. Preston before tomorrow afternoon at the very
earliest.
22
MR. JUSTICE BELL: The suggestion is that we start with
23 Mr. Beavers at 10.30 in the morning; you then
cross-examine Mr. Beavers; he can go back to America; then
24 we go back to Mr. Preston. I think they would like to
consider the matter between themselves before we make a
25 decision. Sit down if you wish to, Mr. Preston.
26 MR. MORRIS: We would prefer to cross-examine Mr. Preston in
the morning tomorrow and if we have not finished our
27 cross-examination to deal with Mr. Beavers on Friday
afternoon, because otherwise we will have two amounts of
28 witness evidence in our mind at the same time. We
probably would get quite confused; so we would prefer to
29 cross-examine Mr. Preston tomorrow morning, but if we have
not finished by mid-day then we would agree to stop then
30 and Mr. Beavers could come in at that stage.
