Summary. 10th Prosecution witness, Ian MacPhee, Maytime bargemaster is cross-questioned (John Mayer gets blood out of a stone!). Women are acquitted of charge 2 (attempted theft of liferafts). Adjournment for rest of day for consultations before defence case starts.
Witness: Iain MacPhee, Maytime Bargemaster, being questioned by John Mayer. JM asked MacPhee about the night he went out to Maytime and found nearly everything missing or damaged. He claimed that none of the equipment was critical and that the work of Maytime was not effected by its loss. Neither DERA or the MOD were put to any inconvenience by the removal of the equipment. After some intense questioning he eventually conceded that on a scale of 1 to 10, the inconvenience caused was about 5!.
JM then asked him about the importance of the work of Maytime, which he
completely played down. JM got him to read from the printout of the DERA
website which the women left on the table in Maytime. It says that DERA is
a prime supplier of technical advise to the MOD, which JM eventually got
MacPhee to agree to.
MacPhee then said that he knew nothing about websites. JM asked him if
someone had told him what to say in the court. He said no, but not very
convincingly.
JM then asked about the work of Maytime. After a lot of evasion he managed
to extract from MacPhee that Maytime does acoustic research. The objective
is to increase or reduce the return signal. (i.e. make submarines harder to
detect).
They then moved on to Newt, which MacPhee said was for taking 'inwater
acoustic measurements' on all classes of submarines including Trident,
specifically Vanguard.
He doesn't do the research on Trident, the visiting scientists do that.
At this point MacPhee had been so obtuse in his answering that JM said 'I'm
not performing cross-examination this morning, but dentistry !!'
They went back to the website printout and MacPhee had to read out various
bits about the role of Maytime and Newt.
John McLaughlin questioning. Asked MacPhee about the photo of the smashed equipment on Maytime that was the power supply to Newt and the quotation from the engineering consultants for fixing it. They looked at the list of items missing from Maytime, which included 'data from Newt hull surveys' JMc again got MacPhee to refer to the website printout and the links between Maytime, Newt and Trident. He asked 'Is Loch Goil a key facility for submarine acoustic work?' and MacPhee answered 'yes'. They agreed that MacPhee could go, but might be recalled later in the trial.
The Crown case was then closed and John Mayer submitted that there was 'no case to answer' on charge 2 (attempting to steal two liferafts). The PF made no objection and they are therefore acquitted of that charge.
They then asked for an adjournment for the rest of the day for joint consultations to take place. This was granted.