Was it Lord Eldon who said, ‘There are three sorts of liars. Liars, damned liars and expert witnesses’? I see that in recent weeks yet another expert has been discredited. There is also a suggestion that barristers are not laying into experts who appear by video as they would in the full drama of the courtroom.
One genuine expert who could withstand any amount of cross-examination was the late Sir Keith Simpson. If I sent him papers in a case, in a day or so he would appear in my office unannounced with his findings and expect me to assimilate them as he spoke.
It was he who nearly had me in serious trouble down at Lewes Crown Court. It was a murder case in which the client was prepared to plead guilty to manslaughter. Sir Keith’s role was to sit in while the Crown’s pathologist gave his evidence and point out the way cross-examination should go. This was late in his career and he had much more fun lecturing than giving evidence.
No question of fixing a date for trial in those days and when I telephoned Simpson’s secretary I was told he could not come as he was in Mold giving evidence. Naturally it was my fault. Into the witness box I went to explain things and the judge wanted to know why I hadn’t served a witness summons. I ventured it was not usual to subpoena one’s own expert and the case was adjourned for 20 minutes. The judge returned to say Sir Keith had better be in court by 2pm or he would deal with him for contempt. Simpson had told the solicitors in Mold he was in Lewes and vice versa. He was in fact giving a talk to RAF officers in Cambridge.
I don’t know how but he was there at 1.55pm and throughout the pathologist’s evidence kept up an audible commentary. ‘Quite right’, ‘Good boy’, ‘That’s what I taught you’. At the end of the afternoon the prosecution dropped the murder charge.
‘Have you something to say to me, Sir Keith?’ asked the judge. Simpson mumbled some sort of semi-contrite apology about mixing dates. ‘Just remember this is my court not yours,’ was the reply. I believe they then had tea together.
James Morton is a writer and former criminal defence solicitor
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