Day 100 - 09 Mar 95 - Page 21
1 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord -- this is not a direct quote -- according
2 to the newspaper, and that is a very important
3 qualification about the whole of it, he felt something
4 moving in his mouth. He spat out the food and saw a three
5 inch worm wriggling across the floor.
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I am going to wait and see. I think,
8 for whatever this turns out to be worth at the end of the
9 day, it would be bad enough if you found a three inch worm
10 in your burger, whether it was alive or not might be
11 thought to be a matter of detail.
12
13 MS. STEEL: You would accept that if it was dead that it was
14 possible then?
15 A. I would -- yes, it is a very remote but it would be
16 possible, yes.
17
18 Q. McDonald's has been taken to court on a number of
19 occasions, has it not, for selling under-cooked burgers or
20 other meat products?
21 A. They have been in court, yes.
22
23 Q. How many instances do you know of?
24 A. Been in court for -- sorry, could you?
25
26 Q. For selling under-cooked products.
27 A. For selling under-cooked products?
28
29 Q. Meat products.
30 A. I would say three times. I do not have a photographic
31 memory. I would have to check. But, from memory, I would
32 say three times during my time.
33
34 Q. Which are the three incidents that you can recall then?
35 A. There was an under-cooked quarter pounder at Tottenham
36 Court Road.
37
38 Q. That was at Well Street Magistrates?
39 A. The first hearing was at Well Street Magistrates Court,
40 yes.
41
42 Q. That was in 1992?
43 A. About then, yes.
44
45 Q. On that occasion a customer was sick after biting into the
46 burger?
47 A. I cannot remember all the details of the incident, but
48 if you say that to be the case -----
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You are just being asked for your
51 recollection. Can you help as to whether a customer was
52 sick, vomited that means, I think?
53 A. I think the customer ---
54
55 Q. That is the meaning put to you.
56 A. -- was psychologically sick, I think, if my
57 recollection is correct. In other words, it was not a
58 physical, a reaction to a toxin or something in the food;
59 it was just the fact that he thought he was eating
60 something raw that made him sick.