CL-2018-000297, CL-2018-000404, CL-2018-000590, - [2025] EWHC 2364 (Comm)

Mr Godson was very cagey and nervous, but generally careful and fair, not evasive or difficult as a witness. However, in my judgment he is evidently an individual so affected by the burdens of this litigation as to have lost any ability he might ever have had to separate what he did or did not know or understand at the time, or indeed whether on any given point he now has any relevant recollection at all, from what he believes today, or thinks he understands, about what happened or may have happened. That spilled over into repeated difficulty in answering questions asked or even maintaining focus on them. That made Mr Godson appear evasive, but in my judgment that would not be a true assessment. I consider, rather, that he is an unsophisticated individual overwhelmed by the juggernaut of this litigation.

The upshot is that whilst I judge that Mr Godson was trying his best to give proper factual witness evidence, whether in his witness statement as adopted by him to be his evidence in chief, or in his oral evidence, his best was really very inadequate. Great caution must be taken before accepting anything Mr Godson may have said on important points as potentially reliable, honest though he will have been in putting it forward as what he imagined to be an answer to a relevant question.