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[107]
On behalf of Mr. Lindsay, Mr. Skurka submits that Mr. M.’s evidence is
fundamentally unreliable. There are so many inconsistencies in his testimony that it would be
unsafe to rely on his evidence. Mr. Skurka asks me to consider certain inconsistencies in
particular. He points out that Mr. M. testified that Mr. Lindsay said he would return in a week,
but neither he nor Mr. Bonner did so. It was only through luring at the direction of the police
that Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Bonner went to the restaurant on January 31. Mr. M. was inconsistent
about whether he thought the men were collecting money for the purchasers of the activation
box, as he testified in examination-in-chief, or whether they were the purchasers seeking the
repayment of their own money. The distinction is important, because to say they were collecting
money for someone else casts them in a worse light. Mr. M. testified in examination-in-chief
that he understood the Hells Angels collected money, but later said he was unaware at the time of
what the Hells Angels did, which was confirmed by Mr. D.’s testimony. The difference is
significant, because saying they collected money portrayed the events in a more sinister light.
Mr. M. was inconsistent about when he became frightened, first saying it was when Mr. Lindsay
spoke, and then saying it was when he saw the emblems as they walked away. Although Mr. M.
insisted at trial he saw two jackets, Senior Detective Constable McClocklin recalled him
mentioning only one, and on January 30 Mr. M. spoke of seeing “the jacket” on the Internet. It
is Mr. Skurka’s position that only Mr. Bonner wore the jacket on January 23, and that Mr. M.
embellished his account to make it more sinister. Both Senior Detective Constable McClocklin
and Detective Constable Fisher reported that Mr. M. said the amount demanded was $20,000,
comments that Mr. M. denied. Mr. Skurka argues that the officers had no reason to get the
amount wrong, and that the figure coincides with the price at which Mr. M. sold the box, so he
must have said it. Detective Constable Fisher also reported that Mr. M. said he had one week to
come up with the money, or he, his family and Mr. Maskell would be put in the hospital, another
comment that Mr. M. denied. Mr. Skurka suggests that Mr. M. embellished to add his family
into the threat to make it sound more sinister. On the other hand, Mr. D. said Mr. M. told him
that he would be put in the hospital, a statement that Mr. M. denied. Mr. Skurka contends that in
cross-examination Mr. M. agreed he took as a threat the words that Mr. Lindsay was coming
back in a week and he better have the money.