Day 165 - 27 Sep 95 - Page 18

     
     1        that it goes in, but if one party or the other makes an
     2        objection in relation to any particular material, then I am
     3        not going to be slow in asking myself:  Well, even if this
     4        might have some arguable materiality, is it at the end of
     5        the day going to help me?
     6
     7        At the moment, I do not mind saying I am having difficulty
     8        in seeing how reliability about things said by people other
     9        than you or Mr. Morris about matters other than McDonald's
    10        is going to help me about reliability of evidence about
    11        what you or Mr. Morris actually said about McDonald's.
    12
    13        There is plenty of other material there which might be far
    14        more germane.  If you say, for instance, you were not at a
    15        particular meeting when an enquiry agent says you were and
    16        you may, for all I know, call another witness or witnesses
    17        who confirm your evidence on that matter, or if it is said
    18        you were running the meeting and you said you were not, and
    19        you have some evidence to support your evidence in relation
    20        to that, that is all far more, it is my present reaction,
         germane to matters of reliability about your attitude
    22        towards McDonald's than what someone else may have said
    23        about something which was not to do with McDonald's.
    24
    25   MS. STEEL:  I would like to say -----
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We have to -- I appreciate I am saying this
    28        15 months after the start of the trial -- we really do owe
    29        it to ourselves to try not to bring in material which is
    30        unlikely to be helpful at the end of the day.
    31
    32   MS. STEEL:  Mr. Rampton cross-examined Mr. Bruton at length
    33        about how many pairs of socks he might have had in his
    34        possession, about X-Y-Z.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If you thought that any of the enquiry agents
    37        had a black mark against them, you could cross-examine them
    38        about that.  What we are talking about is discovery of
    39        documentation upon which cross-examination could be based.
    40
    MS. STEEL:  Yes.  I wanted to say in respect of this as well
    42        that we do have four statements from other people who were
    43        at the Greenpeace meetings.  Suppose, for example, there is
    44        a dispute between me and Mr. Clare about whether or not
    45        I said that I was responsible for production and
    46        distribution of the leaflet complained of, if there is just
    47        me and him arguing it out, it may be hard to make a
    48        decision about which is more likely to be the correct
    49        version.  But if, for example, he said in his notes:  "Paul
    50        said this at this meeting; Jane said that at the meeting; 
    51        Charlie said that at the meeting", and all three of them 
    52        said:  "I never said that at the meeting", then the fact 
    53        that you have four people all disputing what they are
    54        alleged to have said would be added weight as to the fact
    55        that it is quite likely that his notes were inaccurate.
    56
    57        I believe that for the purposes of deciding whether or not
    58        what the witness has said is correct, you will have to
    59        determine whether or not the notes are reliable, because
    60        they are going to be relying on these notes for their