Day 172 - 12 Oct 95 - Page 32
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I find it difficult to see at the moment how
2 you can, save as part of Mr. Magill's statement.
3
4 MR. RAMPTON: There it is. I am tempted by that, but I am going
5 to not take the fly, if I may, and I am going to sustain my
6 objection to it, because I do not want it read out at this
7 stage at least; and if I can get it back I can; if not,
8 then -----
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, very well. Those are your -----
11
12 MR. RAMPTON: I am just looking to see if there is anything on
13 its own in the supplementary that I need to object to.
14 Yes, my Lord, there is a passage on the top of page 4 of
15 the supplementary statement, under "Levels of takings
16 (49)" -- remembering that I think Mr. Magill never got
17 beyond even his first or probationary badge; he was never a
18 manager, at all events. He says: "The takings at the
19 Marble Arch branch never fell." Whether it matters very
20 much, I do not know, but he could not possibly know that.
21 He was never in a position to see any material which would
22 show him one way or the other.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Right. Did you mark all these as -- thank
25 you, Mr. Rampton. Was there anything else?
26
27 MR. RAMPTON: No.
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Did you mark all these as Mr. Rampton -----
30
31 MR. MORRIS: Yes, we did.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are you sure, because if not I was going to
34 spend two minutes now making sure that you put brackets
35 round them so you could argue them.
36
37 MR. MORRIS: No. We have done, we have done.
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, what I will do, unless you particularly
40 want to start addressing me now on it, we will resume at
41 two o'clock. But if you want to start for five minutes,
42 you can. If I were you, I would go away and think about
43 it.
44
45 MR. MORRIS: OK.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The point is this, if it may be hearsay or may
48 not, then, as a rule, I am inclined to have it in. If it
49 is clearly hearsay or pretty clearly hearsay, we cannot
50 have it read out. The equivalent would be if the person
51 was in the witness box and Mr. Rampton, having a copy of
52 their statement, knew they were about to come to something,
53 he could stand up and object to it and I would rule on it,
54 and if I thought it was hearsay I would stop the witness
55 giving any evidence about it. If there is a very real
56 doubt as to whether it is hearsay, I will allow it to be
57 read out. If it is just a question of weight to be
58 attached, I will allow it to be read out. But if the only
59 reasonable construction I can make of the statement,
60 including other parts of the statement as well as the part
