Day 106 - 23 Mar 95 - Page 13

     
     1        actually contaminated by that salmonella.
     2
     3   Q.   So if a company that used beef on a huge scale, such as
     4        McDonald's, said that it did not find salmonella in its
     5        beef, what would be your opinion of that?
     6        A.  Did it say that?
     7
     8   Q.   If they did?
     9        A.  If they did, then I would find that difficult to
    10        accept.  Frankly -- I will develop on that -- that is not a
    11        credible statement.  I would suggest that, perhaps, they
    12        were not looking hard enough.
    13
    14   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I would be interested to know who is
    15        supposed to have said that.  I do not remember it.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, but it was put as a purely hypothetical
    18        question.
    19
    20   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, yes, but we have finished our evidence in
         this aspect of the case and I do not recall it having been
    22        said.  The evidence of Mr. Bennett was that it would be
    23        about .5 to 1 per cent which accords with what this witness
    24        has said.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is no different from your view, is it?
    27        A.  In the live animals or the finished product?
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Which was that in?
    30
    31   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I cannot remember.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let us leave it there because -----
    34
    35   MR. MORRIS:  It does not matter.  We had some note on that but
    36        may be it can be checked up later.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, you are not to assume from the fact you
    39        asked a question "if such and such was so" that, in fact,
    40        there had been evidence that it was so.
    41
    42   THE WITNESS:  It might help, my Lord -- the memory flooding back
    43         -- when I as at McKey's I did ask whether they had
    44        identified salmonella from the beef during routine
    45        sampling.  In fact, Mr. Walker made a telephone call to his
    46        laboratory in my presence and asked over an unspecified
    47        time whether they had found any salmonella in the meat, in
    48        the burgers, and the answer was "no".  In that context,
    49        I would certainly put that that was not a credible
    50        statement in the inference that no salmonella was present 
    51        in those burgers. 
    52 
    53   MR. MORRIS:  You were basically relying on what you were told
    54        because you have had no access to documents?
    55        A.  I have not seen any documentation in relation to
    56        microbiological assays at the time at McKey's.
    57
    58   Q.   When you were there?
    59        A.  Quite so.
    60