Day 126 - 17 May 95 - Page 06
1 that because the trial is so long, five weeks actually
2 probably will not make that much difference. Also, one of
3 those weeks is actually the half-term break in any event.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Indeed it is, but even though the trial is
6 very long, there is an obvious need to press on without
7 undue delay and to sustain such momentum as there actually
8 is in the trial. Certainly, my present thinking is that
9 one way or another, especially in the light of what
10 Mr. Rampton said, I do not see any need for a substantial
11 adjournment. The question is what we do over the next day
12 or so.
13
14 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, can I make this suggestion --
15 Mr. Fairgrieve who is in court will not thank me for it,
16 but I will deal with him later or he with me -- I am
17 floating an idea for your Lordship to think about; this is
18 entirely matter for your Lordship -- the only thing I say
19 is that I share your Lordship's doubt whether any five week
20 adjournment is either necessary or appropriate or, indeed,
21 right. I would not oppose a short adjournment -- by
22 "short" I mean a matter of days -- to the end that if we
23 adjourn today, for example, Mr. Fairgrieve would go away,
24 come back another day. He is not part of the employment
25 texture, if I can put it like that.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, he is being interposed.
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: He is interposed. He is part finished anyway, so
30 really it does not matter when he is dealt with; it matters
31 to him but not perhaps so far as your Lordship was
32 concerned Lordship; that we abort the rest of this week
33 and, perhaps, Monday of next week, so as to give Mr. Morris
34 time to think about the proposal I have made, to get in
35 touch with Mrs. Brinley-Codd and for a suitable person, an
36 agency and a suitable person, to be found to fulfil the
37 suggestion that I have made on McDonald's behalf.
38
39 By Tuesday, at least, of next week, one ought to know one
40 way or another what the fruit of the attempt to make that
41 arrangement has been. I would hope by then both of the
42 arrangements would be in place. Secondly -- this is also
43 obviously important -- that the boy, Charlie Morris, will
44 have got over what one might call the emotional, the
45 immediate emotional, trauma of the accident.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: One hopes that he will -- one knows how
48 resilient six year-olds are -- and it will have given
49 Mr. Morris some opportunity to recover from what must have
50 been the upset to him too.
51
52 MR. RAMPTON: Yes. I do not say that Mr. Morris should be in
53 court during the next few days -- that would be
54 unreasonable and unfair -- but by, say, next Tuesday he
55 ought to be -- he is quite resilient too, I would have said
56 -- in a condition to come back to court, perhaps on a
57 part-time basis, as your Lordship was suggesting, perhaps
58 on full-time, that would be up to him, provided there is
59 someone to look after the boy, and that the boy would be on
60 the way to recovering, not from the injury, but from the
