Day 035 - 12 Oct 94 - Page 06
1 MR. RAMPTON: I was going to suggest, so we can get it out of
2 the way, we have had a late start anyway, it might be the
3 sensible thing to do it now before I get embroiled in what
4 will be quite a long paper chase with Dr. Barnard through
5 the documents.
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will leave court when that is being done
8 because I do not know yet whether I should see it or not.
9 Who else should remain in court?
10
11 MR. RAMPTON: I have seen it. Perhaps if your Lordship were to
12 go into chambers, there are McDonald's people here, they
13 are obviously entitled to see it.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are you content that Doctor Barnard sees
16 it?
17
18 MR. RAMPTON: I think it would be right that he should. The
19 trouble is it came in an American form which does not work
20 on an English television. It has to be transposed into
21 English form. Normally speaking, he would have had a
22 chance to see it before he gave his evidence.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I will do is I will leave court for a
25 minute or two. I would ask anyone who is not either here
26 for the purpose of assisting the Defendants or the
27 Plaintiffs to leave the court when I rise and I will come
28 back in when you have seen those two parts.
29
30 MS. STEEL: We obviously do not know, talking about objections,
31 the law concerning this. If there is some kind of
32 regulation about this, then I do not know whether we would
33 need to get advice or anything.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not aware they are; it is really to be
36 treated, look at it in this way: Documents have been put
37 to witnesses so far, parts of documents. That is a
38 perfectly normal practice in our courts by way of
39 obtaining additional evidence from them or testing the
40 evidence they have already given. Look at a video
41 recording in exactly the same light. Part of it, 30
42 seconds may be put to the witness, just as one page of a
43 document may be put to a witness. So far so good.
44
45 If it is a document, as has often become apparent so far
46 in this case, one page of which is put to a witness, you
47 may want to see the whole of the document to decide
48 whether in re-examination you want to put other parts.
49 Look at a video film in the same way. Mr. Rampton will
50 put part of the video recording, let us say, to
51 Dr. Barnard. By the time you get round to re-examining
52 Dr. Barnard, you will have seen the whole of the film.
53 You will be able to decide whether you would like to put
54 other parts to Dr. Barnard or like to refer me to other
55 parts, perhaps seeing the whole, perhaps just certain
56 parts. That is a decision you would have to make just as
57 you would with a document.
58
59 MS. STEEL: Right.
60
