45
53. Going back slightly in time, Judge Daniell, who was not in a position to know the full development of all that he had set in motion, continued in his efforts to help MacLennan. On the morning of 28 November 1978, he contacted Mrs. Elliott. She saw him in his Chambers and was later joined by Mr. Rattigan. The Judge told Mrs. Elliott what he knew. According to Mrs. Elliott, Judge Daniell said they (including Rattigan by implication) had “grilled” (Mrs. Elliott said this was Mr. Daniell's word) MacLennan for four hours one day after court, and that having "grilled" him, as a magistrate, he would have had to acquit him.35 Judge Daniell, in his evidence, denied having said that, but said that he only questioned MacLennan on two or three occasions of about ten or fifteen minutes each, and Mr. Rattigan, though present at times, did not take part in such questioning. But the Judge agreed he could have given her the impression that he had questioned MacLennan thoroughly.36 In my view, on balance Judge Daniell probably did use the word "grilled" inspite of his having questioned MacLennan briefly on two or three occasions only, thereby giving her the impression he had questioned MacLennan thoroughly.
54. The conversation continued from the Judge's Chambers to lunch. Mr. Rattigan was present during part of the discussions but he hardly spoke. After lunch, Mrs. Elliott returned to the Judge's Chambers where she was first introduced to MacLennan. She was left alone with him for about an hour. MacLennan appeared shy and was, at first, reluctant to talk. When he did, he spoke about the unfairness of the termination, the fact that no reason was given. They did not discuss the details of the allegation. Mrs. Elliott said that was not necessary as she was satisfied the Judge had already discussed it with MacLennan and concluded that he was telling the truth. She asked MacLennan why such allegations could have been made against him, whereupon MacLennan said: "It could be Triads trying to get at me.” He explained that being a Court Prosecutor he sometimes had to deal with triads and as he did not give them "any soft treatment", they might be getting back at him. They discussed how Mrs. Elliott could help and it was eventually agreed that she would write to the Governor.
55.
37
Mrs. Elliott said at same stage she asked the Judge what he thought was the reason for the "dismissal". He then told her that after "grilling" MacLennan, he had also tried to probe the reason, and as far as he could tell, MacLennan had been in the Special Branch investigating homosexuals, and that he had seen a file with names of very senior police officers in it. No names, however, were mentioned by MacLennan either to the Judge or to Mrs. Elliott. 38
56. After her visit to the Magistracy, Mrs. Elliott made a brief note 39 and wrote a letter to the Governor.40 The next morning, she took the letter by hand to Government House. A copy of this letter was later published in full in some of the leading local papers shortly after MacLennan's death. This led to considerable public speculation and disquiet. It made a very serious allegation:-
"If MacLennan had been framed, one has to look for a motive and this the magistrate tried to do. MacLennan was loyal to his duty and would not give details of his former work, but they did discover that on his first term in Hong Kong it was his duty to investigate homosexuals. They felt that he must have investigated some high policeman who now wants to get him out of the way."
It is pertinent to note that Mrs. Elliott attributed the above thought to the two magistrates rather than MacLennan himself.
57.
Meanwhile, still on 28 or 29 November 1978, Judge Daniell contacted Father McGovern and repeated to him more or less what he had told Mrs. Elliott. He also told Father McGovern he thought there had been a frame-up against MacLennan. As a result of this meeting, Father McGovern telephoned the Governor's Social Secretary. He asked her to expect Mrs. Elliott's letter and to treat it seriously. Father McGovern felt anxious that the matter should be properly investigated. Although he had never met MacLennan himself, he had been told by Judge Daniell that he and Mr. Rattigan had thoroughly questioned MacLennan and from their long and professional experience of distinguishing truth from lies, they were completely convinced that MacLennan was telling the truth. Father McGovern gave his evidence in the most convincing manner and I accept his evidence in full. It would therefore appear from this paragraph and the paragraph above that the genesis of the "frame-up" theory could be traced to Judge Daniell.
58.
The Governor received Mrs. Elliott's letter on 29 November 1978 and that was the first he heard of the Yuen Long affair. Quite apart from any other allegation in the letter, he was concerned with the allegation that no reason had been given for the termination of MacLennan's contract. Feeling that this might indicate something had gone wrong, he telephoned Rowlands and Purdon. Both of them assured him that the matter was under review. The Governor then sent Elliott's letter to Rowlands with a note asking to be told of the outcome before a final decision was taken. Rowlands received the letter and the Governor's note later the same day just as the Civil Service was despatching their memorandum referred to above, cancelling the earlier decision to terminate MacLennan's contract. Meanwhile the Governor replied to Mrs. Elliott's letter, telling her in confidence that he was looking into the case urgently.*
35
Transcript page 11134.
36 Transcript page 3090.
37 Transcript page 11136.
Transcript page 11137.
38
39
40
41
File K page 60, reproduced in Appendix 16.
File A page 86T, reproduced in Appendix 15.
File A page 86u.
1