Day 102 - 13 Mar 95 - Page 11
1 So what Mr. Rampton is entitled to do is produce a document
2 out of the hat, as it were, provided it only goes to
3 credit. Quite frankly, I would encourage everyone to
4 produce documents as to credit as well if they feel able to
5 do so.
6
7 MS. STEEL: My concern is that Mr. Rampton said the documents
8 would speak for themselves, but if Mr. Rampton puts a
9 document to our witness, for example, and our witness says
10 "Well, no, that is not an accurate record of what
11 happened" -----
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Then Mr. Rampton is stuck with that answer.
14 That is one of the rules of -----
15
16 MS. STEEL: It would not stand as evidence on its own?
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. A feature of this whole area of
19 cross-examination as to credit is that if you get an answer
20 you do not like, you cannot set about proving that the
21 answer is wrong.
22
23 MR. RAMPTON: What is more, my Lord, just so that the Defendants
24 shall not think that when I come to cross-examine
25 Mr. Bruton I am up to any lawyers' tricks, the strict law
26 is, if I put a document in front of a witness which is not
27 an admissible document and he does adhere to his answer,
28 and he is not persuaded by sight of the document to change
29 his answer, then neither your Lordship nor the Defendants
30 are entitled to see that document.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is the part of Phipson which deals
33 with -----
34
35 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, it starts at 12-18. That is the
36 paragraph number. My Lord, the authority for the
37 proposition which I have just advanced to your Lordship is
38 an old case called R. v. Duncombe (1838). The headnote
39 says: "If counsel who cross-examines puts a paper into the
40 witness's hand and puts questions on it and anything comes
41 of those questions, counsel for the opposite party have a
42 right to see the paper and to re-examine on it. But if the
43 cross-examination founded on the paper fails and nothing
44 comes of it, the opposite counsel have no right to see the
45 paper". In other words, if he says: "No, that is not
46 right", then the paper goes back into my back pocket and
47 nobody gets to see it.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Not only does no-one get to see it,
50 furthermore, the contents of the document cannot be in
51 evidence against the witness. That was Ms. Steel's -----
52
53 MR. RAMPTON: No, absolutely. That is why I have been
54 continually on my feet throughout this case because the
55 Defendants have still not, it seems to me, grasped that a
56 document cannot be read, it cannot be described, parts of
57 it cannot be represented until such time as the witness
58 accepts the accuracy or the authenticity of what is said in
59 the document.
60
