THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE NICKLIN Approved Judgment
MBR Acres Ltd -v- McGivern
to the security officer, “ I want to know if you think I’m legal standing here? ” Ms McGivern thought that she had asked whether it was “ okay ” for her to be standing there. What is confirmed by the body-worn footage is that the security officer was walking by the side of the two vehicles as they were attempting to leave the Wyton Site and Ms McGivern can be seen to be speaking to the security officer on each occasion when the car comes to a stop. After the Nissan Juke reverses back inside the site, the security officer can be seen to go stand at the open window of one of the buildings. 61. Ms McGivern gave evidence in her defence at the hearing. She was cross-examined, in total, for over a day. The length of the cross-examination was largely a result of its repetitive nature; several questions were long, or hypothetical, or both. I only made limited interventions. Ms McGivern, given her position as a criminal advocate, was not prejudiced in giving her evidence by the objectionable form of many of the questions she was asked. Ms McGivern gave clear answers to all proper questions asked of her. Just before lunch on the first day, after Ms McGivern had been cross-examined for over an hour, I did intervene to suggest to Ms Bolton that questions that began “ If… ” were unlikely to assist me because they were only likely to elicit Ms McGivern’s comment on a hypothetical scenario. 62. Several themes emerged from Ms Bolton’s cross-examination. i) The primary case, advanced on behalf of the Claimants, was that Ms McGivern had, by reason of reading the copy of the Injunction on PC Shailes’ laptop at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court, actual knowledge of the terms of the Injunction. Therefore, her actions on 4 May 2022 were deliberate and “ flagrant ” breaches of the Injunction showing a “ wanton disregard ” for its terms. It was put to Ms McGivern, in terms by Ms Bolton, that, by standing in front of the vehicles, she was “ defying the injunction ”. ii) A secondary case emerged during the course of the cross-examination. That was that Ms McGivern, as a result of her discussions with the protestors at the site on 4 May 2022, and given that she was a solicitor, must have realised, before she obstructed the vehicles and committed the other alleged breaches of the injunction, that there was an injunction in place and therefore she had actual knowledge of its terms. iii) Finally, Ms Bolton pursued a line of questions which, it appeared, was designed to support an argument that Ms McGivern had constructive knowledge of the terms of the injunction. The contention being that, even if she had not learned the actual terms of the injunction through discussion with the protestors, Ms McGivern must have realised that there was an injunction in place, and she recklessly failed to inform herself of the terms by neglecting to go to the noticeboard where a copy of the Injunction was displayed. 63. Contrary to the claim made at the hearing on 20 June 2022, Ms Bolton did not suggest to Ms McGivern that she was acting as a protestor on 4 May 2022. However, Ms Bolton did take up time in cross-examination reviewing with Ms McGivern her Facebook account and “friends” on that platform. The only purpose of this cross-examination was to attempt to suggest that Ms McGivern was herself supportive of the protestors and therefore willing to breach the terms of the Injunction.
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