Mr. Serjeant Shee: Don’t state that unless you are going to prove it.
The Attorney-General: It is suggested that a witness has given evidence here which she did not give before the coroner; my object is to show, first, that questions were not put to her which might and ought to have been put; secondly, that her answers to other questions were not taken down.
Lord Campbell held that the evidence was not admissible.
Witness, cross-examined by Serjeant Shee: The jury put a great many questions.
Re-examined: The jury made very strong observations as to the necessity of putting questions.
The Attorney-General: Did they assign any reason for interfering when they put questions?
Mr. Serjeant Shee objected to this question, on the ground that it did not arise out of his cross-examination.
Lord Campbell: My learned brethren think that evidence upon this point is not admissible.
Mr. Justice Cresswell said the depositions which had been put in did not show that any questions had been put by the jurymen. If they had contained such questions they would have shown the motive of the jury in putting them. But the Court was left totally in the dark as to whether questions had been put by the coroner or any other person. For anything that appeared to the contrary, the witnesses might have made a voluntary statement, without any questions at all being put to them. No foundation was laid, therefore, for the Attorney-General’s question.
Mr. Baron Alderson concurred.