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Letter from Mr Stuart Benson to the Parliamentary
Commissioner for Standards
In my letter of yesterday, I referred to the
fact that I was expecting to receive a letter from Messrs D J
Freeman dealing with the circumstances under which they compiled
Mr Al-Fayed's witness statements for the purpose of the defamation
proceedings. I attach a copy of the letter I have received from
them today.
I think there is typographical error which I
have noted in the seventh line of the second paragraph of their
letter; the claim is not of course brought by The Guardian,
but against it. I think the error is immaterial to the substance
of the letter, but if you do want me to obtain a corrected copy,
please let me know. Otherwise, the contents are self-explanatory.
May I draw your attention to one issue which
arises out of the letter. As you will see, it confirms and, indeed,
expands upon the brief statement made to you by Mr Carr on Mr
Al-Fayed's behalf. It does, in particular, serve to confirm that
the dates upon which cash payments were made were listed by reference
to the diary entries showing those occasions on which Mr Al-Fayed
met with Mr Hamilton. What is clear from the letter from D J
Freeman is that, in advance of the witness statement being prepared
by them, they were specifically told by Mr Al-Fayed that he only
made payments to Mr Hamilton on occasions when they were alone.
I am not sure why this was omitted from the witness statement
and indeed D J Freeman have no explanation for such omission,
but I have pressed them on this issue and there is no doubt whatsoever
that Mr Al-Fayed has consistently stressed that payments were
only made on occasions when he and Mr Hamilton were alone. The
assumption on which D J Freeman then proceeded was that if the
diary entries contained reference only to Mr Hamilton, then on
those occasions Mr Al-Fayed and Mr Hamilton met alone.
I mention this issue simply because Mr Hamilton
has sought to argue that on one occasion he was accompanied throughout
by someone else who will state that no payment was made in his
presence. As he told you in evidence, Mr Al-Fayed has no recollection
whatsoever of ever meeting the gentleman concerned, and indeed
we were denied the opportunity of testing his evidence in Court.
His witness statement, copied to you by Mr Hamilton, may therefore
be untrue. However, even if it is true, it does not have any material
impact on Mr Al-Fayed's testimony to you. He has consistently
stated since the allegations were first made in 1994 that payments
were only handed over when he and Mr Hamilton were alone; if in
fact, despite the diary entry recording the presence of only
Mr Hamilton, he was accompanied by someone else, no payment would
have been made. Mr Al-Fayed's recollection, however, is that
he did not ever have a meeting with Mr Hamilton in the presence
of the person referred to by Mr Hamilton and we continue to take
issue with the evidence compiled by Mr Hamilton on this issue.
18 February 1997
Letter from D J Freeman to Mr Stuart Benson
NEIL HAMILTON : SIR GORDON DOWNEY
You have asked me to write to you in connection
with Sir Gordon's letter of 29 January to you, as to the instructions
we received from Mr Al-Fayed which led to the preparation of his
witness statement prepared for The Guardian libel proceedings.
In November 1994, it was indicated to Mr Al-Fayed
that he might be asked to attend the House of Commons Privileges
Committee which was at that time investigating Mr Hamilton's stay
at The Ritz Hotel, and that he might be asked to give evidence
to the Select Committee on Members' Interests of the House of
Commons on payments he had made to Mr Hamilton. At the same time,
we were asked by Lovell White Durrant, acting for The Guardian,
if assistance could be given by Mr Al-Fayed in the preparation
of their defence to the claim being brought by The Guardian
action. On Mr Al-Fayed's instructions, I was able to write to
Lovell White Durrant on 28 November sending a number of documents
to them evidencing the relationship with Ian Greer Associates
and the meetings between Mr Al-Fayed and Neil Hamilton. One of
those documents was a bundle of copy diary entries showing when
meetings had taken place. Some entries showed Mr Al-Fayed and
Neil Hamilton meeting with others, while other entries referred
to Mr Hamilton alone.
On 29 November Laurence Harris and I met with
Mr Al-Fayed and Royston Webb at Harrods to take instructions
from Mr Al-Fayed on his relationship with Ian Greer and Neil Hamilton
for the purposes of both providing further information to Lovell
White Durrant, and also to the Select Committee on Members' Interests
of the House of Commons. Mr Al-Fayed told me and the others present
at that meeting that he recalled making payments to Mr Hamilton
when the two of them met alone to discuss parliamentary activity
or Lonrho's campaign. In most cases, the payments were in amounts
of £2,500 cash but he recalled that on four occasions they
were payments of gift vouchers.
Although Mr Al-Fayed was, at the meeting, unclear
as to the exact amount of gift vouchers which he had been given
to Mr Hamilton, once he was provided with the schedule of diary
entries on which Mr Hamilton's name alone is mentioned, he advised
us of which of those dates had been the occasions on which gift
vouchers had been given to Mr Hamilton. Because Mr Al-Fayed had
recalled handing to Mr Hamilton a bundle of £50 notes aggregating
to £2,500 on the other occasions on which he met Mr Hamilton
alone, we set out the sum of £2,500 as the amount paid to
Mr Hamilton for all of the other dates of the schedule. Subsequent
to the meeting, we were advised by telephone of the amounts of
gift vouchers handed over. As a result of the meeting and the
subsequent instructions I thereupon write to Lovell White Durrant
on 30 November setting out the schedule of dates and payments.
The dates referred to were based on the assumption that all the
dates contained in the diaries on which Mr Hamilton's name alone
is mentioned were occasions on which Mr Al-Fayed and Mr Hamilton
met alone.
Similarly, a few days later on 5 December 1994
I wrote to Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith, Chairman of the Select
Committee on Members' Interests with the same information. This
same schedule was then used in Mr Al-Fayed's witness statement
in the action brought by Mr Hamilton against The Guardian,
which Mr Al-Fayed signed on 23 June 1995.
No doubt you have seen copies of all the letters
on which I have referred but I can supply further copies if needed.
I hope this is of assistance in dealing with
the points raised by Sir Gordon Downey.
18 February 1997
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