The original shorthand notes should be in the custody of Newgate Reporters. Mr Stephen Carter, a director, has said they may have been destroyed due to shortage of storage space at the Old Bailey. His promise to find out if they are available for expert examination is pending as of 12th November, 1995.
Mrs Diane Curtis, Newgate's Managing Director, wrote to Mr Koupparis denying the existence of this transcript after the firm had received the transcription order from the police.
On 30th June, 1995 Mr Graham Simpson, a solicitor with J Keith Park & Co. (acting pro bono) and Mr Koupparis visited the office of Newgate Reporters unannounced. Mrs Curtis was on vacation. Mr Carter produced almost 1,000 pages of transcript and later supplied four 3.5" CP/M disks containing the entire transcript presently available at this site. On 22nd August, 1995 The files were converted to IBM PC ASCII format by Micro Techniques Ltd. (+44 (0) 1908 314491)
The release of this trial transcript comes almost exactly 6 years after the trial. Under English law the statute of limitations for medical negligence claims is 6 years. It was also released a few days after the Greek-Cypriot Supreme Court, presided over by Judge Frixos Nicolaides, ruled that the trial of three British soldiers for the brutal rape and killing of Louise Jensen - a 23 year old Danish tour guide - should proceed. Frixos Nicolaides is a central character in this trial and was named recently in a complaint of 'personation of a trial witness' a serious criminal offence in England.
Photocopies of the transcript may be obtained from Newgate Reporters Ltd. (+44 (0) 171 535 4414) at £122.55 (European Community residents add relevant tax) plus postage and packing. The transcript is divided into 12 volumes and further sub-divided into individual witness sections and sub-sections, i.e. examination, cross-examination and re-examination, all of which may be ordered separately at £0.15 per page plus p&p (and tax, if applicable).
Some parts of the transcript exist in more than one version, notably the SUMMING-UP. The Court of Appeal sent a version to the defendant while he was still imprisoned which differs from this version. The differences will be incorporated into this archive in due course.
Analysis reveals a number of inconsistencies within the transcript that suggest some parts of the trial have been omitted or edited, for example: the extensive legal argument that took place at the close of the prosecution's case is not recorded, even by a place marker.
Within the transcript there are place markers to indicate the opening and closing speeches of prosecution and defence Counsel but no indication of what was said. Mrs Curtis insists that no shorthand record was made of those parts of the trial although independent witnesses confirm that Mrs Stoneman was in court and taking notes at the time.
There are place markers for the reading of witness statements, some of whom had made several statements to British and Greek Cypriot police and some had appeared in person at the second trial (t2*). The statements read to the jury were heavily edited by both Counsel, therefore, it is not possible to establish exactly what evidence was presented to the jury from this transcript.
Place markers indicate where parts of prosecution tape recordings were played to the jury but this transcript does not identify the actual parts or any of the contents of those tapes.
Third party accounts of the proceedings, recollections of witnesses, examination of underlying statements, forensic and expert reports and lawyers' attendance notes reveal serious inconsistencies with some testimonies as portrayed by this transcript. See Dr Ashton's correspondence on this issue.
The transcript features a number of spelling mistakes. Also serious errors regarding the names of witnesses and pharmaceuticals that were an important feature of the defence case. The original ASCII text has not been changed in any way except for the addition of the notation [sic] in square brackets to identify disputed spellings or names. Where (sic) appears with round brackets it is part of the official transcript.
The most important errors are the use of the names Symeon and Cambanellos which appear throughout the transcript, but they do not appear anywhere in the police evidence. At the end of the trial the prosecution conceded that the names were Simon and Campanella(s). However, the matter does not end there - whoever concocted Cambanellos created a word-play that is apparent to any English-speaking Greek-Cypriot. Cambana is the Cypriot word for bell. Substituting the English 'bell' in the name Cambanellos creates 'bellos': Cypriot slang for insane or mad. The defendant's defence was temporary insanity. The court was mocking him with this made-up name, a cruel joke at his expense.
Mr Carter confirmed that it is the duty of a shorthand writer to ensure that judges always appear to speak perfect English and behave like gentlemen. However, unlike the common practice in the trial of civil cases, where judges are allowed to amend the trial transcript, an Act of Parliament prevents them from doing so in criminal cases.