THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE NICKLIN Approved Judgment
MBR Acres Ltd -v- McGivern
two grounds were hopeless and bound to fail. At the time of the alleged commission of the first two breaches of the Injunction, Ms McGivern had not, by her actions and operation of the Gammell principle, brought herself within the definition of any of the categories of “Persons Unknown”. It was the third alleged breach that did so. From that point onwards, she was bound by the Injunction under the Gammell principle. 81. Ms McGivern has never disputed the factual allegations of what she did on 4 May 2022, or that they were a breach of the Injunction. The issue is whether she had knowledge of the terms of the injunction when she did these acts. On this, I can state my conclusions on the evidence very shortly. 82. Ms McGivern was a conspicuously honest and careful witness. I accept her evidence as truthful. In particular, I accept that she was not shown, and did not consider, the Injunction on PC Shailes’ laptop at the Cambridge Magistrates’ Court on 27 April 2022. Her evidence on this point is also corroborated and supported by the hearsay evidence of Ms Morrissey and, particularly, by the timing of the arrival of the email. I accept Ms McGivern’s evidence that, by 13.41, she and Ms Morrissey had concluded their discussion about Mr Falsey’s case and Ms Morrissey had obtained instructions to offer no evidence against him. Given that the Court is likely to have begun sitting after the luncheon adjournment at around 13.30, and Mr Falsey had texted a friend at 13.50 to confirm that proceedings against him had been “ dropped ”, there simply is not time for the discussions (and importantly the decision making that would have been consequent on them) to have taken place. It may be that the Injunction was discussed between the officer and Ms Morrissey after it arrived at 13.41, but I find that those discussions did not include Ms McGivern. 83. In that respect, I consider that PC Shailes was an honest, but mistaken witness. The reliability of PC Shailes’ recollection was undermined by (a) his mistake as to the identity of the prosecutor; (b) his mistake as to the location of the Magistrates’ Court; and (c) the fact that he had only been asked for his recollection some months after the relevant events and had made no notes. This event is unlikely to have struck PC Shailes as being important at the time. Consequently, I am satisfied that PC Shailes has simply misremembered what took place. 84. I also reject the alternative bases for establishing that Ms McGivern had actual or constructive knowledge of the terms of the Injunction (see [62(ii)] and [62(iii)] above). In the absence of evidence that the Injunction has been served, constructive knowledge is insufficient to sustain liability for contempt. In those circumstances, it is a question of fact, not whether the terms of the injunction should have come to the attention of the alleged contemnor, but whether it did . The cross-examination on these points was speculative and, in places, devoid of reality, for example suggestions made about people pointing at the noticeboard and an allegation, put to Ms McGivern without any evidence to support it, that she had been discussing the Injunction with the protestors. 85. At one point in her cross-examination, after Ms Bolton had put to her, again, that she had known the terms of the Injunction and, on 4 May 2022, she had been “ challenging and defying it ”, Ms McGivern responded, “ And risking everything? ”. At the end of her evidence, I asked Ms McGivern to expand on that answer. This was her response: “It’s the claimants’ case that I did know, and it’s their case that I knew as a lawyer. So, if I had known that day that there was an injunction in place and that it would
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