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reputation.
MR. TANSEY: Or a colleague who would say, “You cannot trust him; the man is an inveterate,
pathological liar; he makes things up; he tries to make himself sound bigger than he is.” We just do
not know, we just do not know where he stands. Your Lordship has seen this rather tarnished copy
of R. v. Murphy and Maquire, the Northern Ireland case.
MR. JUSTICE BLOFELD: Yes, I have.
MR. TANSEY: The reason your Lordship has it ----
MR. JUSTICE BLOFELD: Yes, page seven; it is all underlined.
MR. TANSEY: I do not know whether I need to refer your Lordship to what the case is about, but
it referred to two judgements ----
MR. JUSTICE BLOFELD: I said page seven at the bottom, it is page nine at the bottom.
MR. TANSEY: Your Lordship has seen it and six lines from the top:
“In S. v. Leepile and Others (5) the court declined to give a direction that the true identity of the
prosecution witness be withheld from the defence.”
The reasons are there clearly set out and what he says is,
“No investigation could be conducted by the accused’s legal representatives into the witness’s
background to ascertain whether he has a general reputation for untruthfulness, whether he has made
previous inconsistent statements ...”
To that we are entitled.
MR. JUSTICE BLOFELD: You know he has not made a previous inconsistent statement because
you have been given it.
MR. TANSEY: I accept that the Crown has given us that material, my Lord,
“… nor to investigate other matters which might be relevant to his credibility in general.
It would be more difficult to make enquiries to establish that the witness was not at places on the
occasions mentioned by him.”
MR. JUSTICE BLOFELD: Apart from, in fact, the possibility that you might find somebody who
was associating with him who said he was totally unreliable, that is really your bald point.
MR. TANSEY:  My Lord it is basically that, but I hope it is not just a question of looking to find a
neighbour, it is effectively to say, for example, “You are a man who nobody can believe a word you
say; you did this; you did that; you said that; look at this document; look at this letter you have
written; you make up things” - that sort of material. Now, whether it exists or not we do not know,
but what we are denied is the opportunity to establish whether such material does or does not exist.
MR. JUSTICE BLOFELD: I find it remarkably difficult to understand, in view of the nature of your
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