Well, Dr. Pirrie's evidence about the slate was relatively short. He said it was not a true slate. I am not quite sure what he meant by a true slate, but it was not a true slate in a geological sense, it was possibly slightly raised eyebrows and an expressionless face. It was roofing or flooring material, rather than something more interesting to geologists. He said it did not match slates that he saw at Bailiffs Wood. There were no slates in the dry stone walls there as far as he could see. There were other types of slate in walls further to the North. He said the type of slate that was in issue was widely used for roofs and floors. He agreed with Mr. Edis that it could have come from anywhere where that type of building material was used. It was common in South Cumbria, and he agreed that slate had been worked generally in the Coniston area for hundreds of years. That was the slate really.
The rock, PDB 5/19, was delivered to him in four pieces, and remember rather like the rubric cube, he put it back together again in our presence; it was not very difficult and it all fitted naturally together. The police also gave him two further rocks or stones recovered from the garden wall at the Leece property. He himself visited Leece on the 5th of July 2004. He had met the current owner, and was told about works done to the garden walls over time. He was informed that while both the front and the rear walls had been repaired from time to time, the front walls had simply been repaired using the original materials, and so therefore he used materials from the front walls only. He took five further samples for comparison. On the 6th of July he travelled to Coniston and visited the Eastern shore of the lake. He took some further stone materials from the shore side at the lake known as Bailiffs Wood, at that area. He examined the dry stone walls bordering the minor road. He was unable to find slate similar to the one in issue, and he also examined a spot about 1.8 kilometres to the North and took one other sample.