Ref: A00-300995 Case No. 871626 Macpherson II
Volume II, Pages 53-61, Friday 9th June, 1989
(In the presence of the jury)
Detective Constable TERENCE KEATING: Sworn
Examined by Mr. Temple
THE WITNESS: Detective Constable Terence Keating, Anti Terrorist
Branch, my Lord.
MR. TEMPLE: Would you confirm that you are the exhibits officer
attached to this case? A. I am one of them.
Q. Mr. Pratt being the other? A. Yes.
Q. Would you also confirm that on Thursday, 14th May 1987, you
had occasion to go to 12 Strickland Court and take possession
of a number of exhibits following a search of the premises?
A. I did, my Lord.
Q. In order to make the task easier as to the identification
within the flat of the origin of various exhibits, have you
prepared a sketch plan? A. Yes, I have.
MR. TEMPLE: That is our Exhibit 135 and the jury have it at
their page 487.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: I am very sorry, it is not in my bundle.
Can someone get me a copy please? (Handed to the Court)
MR. TEMPLE: Mr. Keating, by reference to the exhibits - I am not
going to ask you about every single one, but during the
course of the search was a record kept of the items found?
A. Yes.
Q. Is it kept in an exhibit logbook? A. Yes.
Q. You have that in front of you? A. Yes.
Q. It boils down to this: if anyone wants to know the minute
detail as to the origin of any exhibit you can refer them
back and answer from your book? A. Yes, I can.
MR. TEMPLE: My Lord, may he please have your leave to refresh
his memory from the book?
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: Yes, certainly. We do not have copies
of this.
MR. TEMPLE: Would you confirm that you went to what you have
referred to as "Bedroom 1" of the premises at No. 12? A. I
did.
Q. In that there were two divan beds. Did you find six rubber
thimbles and some ink eradicator? A. Yes.
MR. TEMPLE: And they become our Exhibits 121 and 59.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: Mr. Beckman, do we need to look at these
for any point that may arise concerning the defence?
MR. BECKMAN: May I say we do not need them. There may be one or
two that we do. I will rise to my feet.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: Perhaps you would say when this officer
needs to do more than hold them up.
MR. TEMPLE: Did you find a quantity of glass tubes, our Exhibit
122? A. Yes.
Q. A booklet on computers? A. Yes.
Q. Exhibit 123, and what you describe as "a narcotics folder",
134? A. Yes.
MR. TEMPLE: I would like you to hold up for the jury the
narcotics folder.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: I have seen most things but I have never
seen one of these. It seems to have small phials of various
substances: is that right, Sergeant? A. That is correct,
my Lord, they were not submitted for analysis for reasons ---
Q. It is an identification system, is it, or samples, or what?
A. Yes, it would be samples more, my Lord.
MR. TEMPLE: A pair of sunglasses in a case, Exhibit 125?
A. Yes.
Q. Still in Bedroom 1, did you find a box of floppy disks,
Exhibit 65? A. Yes.
Q. Where precisely were they found? A. The floppy disks were
in actual fact found at Point B on the plan, which is in fact
above the head of the bed; on a ledge above the head of the
bed as you look at the bed on the left hand side. As you
look towards the head of the bed, on the left hand side.
Q. In addition to the box of floppy disks, did you find a
passport and some airline tickets? A. Yes, I did.
MR. TEMPLE: They become our Exhibit 10. Members of the jury,
you can find your Exhibit 10 set out in your document bundle
at page 98 to 131 inclusive.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: That is a British passport.
MR. TEMPLE: You will see that the passport front page is set out
at page 98. If you go to 99 you will see it has been
cancelled and there is a second passport which you will find
at page 113. If you go to page 116, that is showing part
of the passport, and if you go to 113 you will see that it
was issued in November 1984 and is still valid and current.
The airline tickets can be seen at pages 130 to 131. I do
not expect we are going to be concerned with the detail of
the tickets and I am not going to trouble you with the detail
for present purposes. (To the witness): Mr. Keating, with
the finding of the exhibits was a typewriter ribbon cassette
also found, Exhibit 127? A. Yes.
Q. And a computer print-out, Exhibit 128? A. Yes.
Q. Neither of these matters have been copied. Did you then look
at a suitcase in the corner of the room? A. Yes.
Q. On top of the suitcase what did you find? A. Can you give
me a reference for the suitcase?
Q. Yes, TK/23. A. Yes, this was what I would call "Point D".
As you look at the head of the bed again, to the right hand
side in the corner was where it was situated. TK/23,
Exhibit 11, refers to a correspondence folder.
MR. TEMPLE: Members of the jury, for your reference purposes the
documentation is at pages 132 to 158 and you will recollect
we covered a lot of that documentation when I introduced the
case to you. (To the witness): I am just going to ask you a
question about police terminology. You referred to that as
"correspondence".
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: That is on the outside of the folder, is
it? A. Yes, my Lord.
Q. In our photograph it comes out blocked but it is superimposed
on the transparent folder? A. Yes.
MR. TEMPLE: In police parlance "correspondence" means what?
A. Paperwork.
Q. It does not bear the ordinary meaning of letters from one
person to another? A. Not necessarily, no.
Q. On a table by the window did you find a black trilby, Exhibit
TK/26, now our Exhibit 129? A. Yes.
Q. From the wardrobe there is a beige jacket, Exhibit 130?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you find an exhibit which you labelled "TK/28", which
becomes our Exhibit 12? A. Yes.
Q. I want to spend a little more time with this particular
document. First of all, where did you find it? A. This is
shown on the diagram as "Point C". Again if you look
towards the head of the bed, to the ledge above it, it was to
the right hand side.
Q. Members of the jury, I am going to invite you to look at
that; it is page 159. (To the witness): From the table
area did you find further correspondence which you marked up
originally as "TK/34" and "TK/35"? A. Yes, I did.
Q. They become our Exhibits 13 and 17 respectively. Members of
the jury, Exhibit 13 you can find at 160 to 167 and Exhibit
17 at pages 187 through to 198. (To the witness): I want
to ask you about Bedroom 3. Again we can see it marked up on
our plan. I am going to take these matters comparatively
shortly. Among other matters, did you find a beige coat?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. Exhibit 131; a black raincoat, Exhibit 132; an umbrella, 133?
A. Yes.
Q. From the wardrobe in the hallway a grey jacket, 134?
A. Yes.
Q. In a cupboard on the ground floor did you find a number of
pieces of electrical equipment? A. Yes.
Q. Characterised by the finding, for example, of a frequency
scanner and frequency tracer? A. Yes.
Q. My Lord, I do not propose to introduce these as exhibits; it
is a fact that such equipment was found. (To the witness):
All these matters and all the exhibits we dealt with, were
they taken to Paddington Green Police Sation [sic]? A. Yes, they
were.
Q. Just so that there is no mystery about the matter, did you
cause photostat copies to be made of all of the
documentation? A. Yes, that is correct.
Q. The object of that exercise is that these photostat copies
can be shown to prospective persons in the course of the
investigation without a fear of contamination of fingerprints
or other matters? A. That is correct.
CROSS-EXAMINED BY MR. BECKMAN
Q. Mr. Keating, did you take everything there was in the flat?
A. No.
Q. What sort of things did you leave behind? A. Well, do you
mean small items other than furniture, etcetera?
Q. Just give us a rough idea of the sort of things you would
have left behind. A. Well, everything other than what has
been taken. There may well have been books there, pens,
the usual furniture, etcetera, that you would find in a
house. I do not make a record of what I actually leave, I
only make a record of what I take.
Q. What about a medical cabinet? When I refer to drugs I do
not mean drugs in the nasty sense (like opium, cocaine,
heroin) I mean the sort of drugs people are prescribed, like
Valium. A. Medicines loosely speaking?
Q. Yes, that is right. A. Are you talking about within the
defined area where I found the other drugs?
Q. That is right. A. I would have taken everything from there
which appeared to be of a drugs substance.
Q Would that include things like Valium, Librium (inaudible)?
A. As I would not have knowledge of what they were, I would
take them in case.
Q. Did you take any? A. I didn't take any such drug, no.
Q. Did you go into the medicine cabinet or anywhere like that
looking for it? A. I am not aware of the medicine cabinet.
I am not saying there was not one; I am not aware of one.
Q. As far as you are concerned, you say there was no prescribed
medicine there at all? A. None in my recollection.
Q. Of the type of medicine not in your recollection you are not
sure of? A. I am not sure.
Q. The other matter I would ask you is this: this is an unusual
item (indicating) - I agree with your Lordship, I have never
seen anything like it before - it is in pristine condition;
it has not been used? A. It doesn't appear to be.
Q. It is a narcotics testing kit? A. Yes, I cannot say from
my memory exactly what it is, and my memory is a bit vague
now as to what the correspondence are or anything else within
the book, but it does appear to be of that sort of nature.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: A narcotics testing kit. It is
certainly what it looks like.
MR. BECKMAN: The actual title being "(Inaudible) American
Narcotics Testing System on Testing Results" and there is a
set of cards dealing with suspects and that sort of thing,
and it is unused? A. Yes, that's right.
RE-EXAMINED BY MR. TEMPLE
Q. I do not want you to guess or speculate like Mr. Beckman,
but as a matter of principle, if you had come across any
prescription medicine in that bedroom, what would you have
done with it? A. If it was prescribed medicine it could
be necessary for someone that was in police custody, for
example, to have that prescribed medicine. Therefore it
would be taken, if not for evidential purposes it would
certainly be deposited with the custody officer just in case
the police divisional surgeon needs to know what type of
prescribed medicine that person is taking.
Q. Have you in fact any record of taking any such medicines
from the bedroom? A. No. No, my Lord.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: Mr. Beckman, sometimes in a question
there is a suggestion. Is it suggested that there were
prescribed medicines there or do you agree there were none?
Can you help me about that or not?
MR. BECKMAN: My Lord, I am content to accept his answer rather
than create an issue. It is unnecessary but as a direct
answer to your Lordship's question, there were some there,
yes. May I say I am content with what I consider the fair
answer of the officer.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: You may be, but I am not.
MR. TEMPLE: I appreciate that my learned friend is possibly
relying on the answer. Perhaps I could ask him whether or
not he was suggesting there was a medicine cabinet in that
room?
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: I do not think I am going to press it
further. (To the witness): You found no medicines. We may
hear from the other side that there were medicines and that
is possible? A. It is possible, my Lord, yes.
MR. BECKMAN: The medicine cabinet was by way of an example; it
was not meant to be specific so that is clear.
(The witness withdrew)
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