In re-examination Zoran said that he had no recollection of this incident. Its potential
significance lies in the fact that, particularly in the 1996 version, it is open to the
interpretation that Bane thought Zoran was trying to drown him, or at the very least
was recklessly asking him to take a walk on the links with an injured leg when he
might be in serious danger from a rapidly rising tide.
83.
The second entry is dated July 1984, at the time of Bane’s visit to Gleneagles
following his separation from Mirjana. It was during this visit that the 1984 Codicil
was executed and witnessed by Mr and Mrs Taylor. The relevant part of the diary
entry relates to the house at Gleneagles:
“In the house I found that Zoran is in the SECT – Satans =
Jupiter lot of herbs, oil etc and books of satanic brotherhood –
Reg [Wigmore] was not shocked – probably he is one of them.
Daggers, Crystal Ball etc. Ronnie [Taylor] arranged visit to Dr
Robert Wood – blood test …”
Zoran agreed in cross-examination that he kept a lot of books on the occult at Airlie
Court, and this must be what his father was referring to. He added that the occult
philosophy of Rudolph Steiner had been a special interest of his since his university
days. However, it appears from the diary entry that Bane may have seen these books
as evidence of something rather more sinister than a mere interest in the occult; and,
typically for someone suffering from paranoid delusions, he regarded the fact that Mr
Wigmore was not shocked as evidence that he too was probably one of the satanic
brotherhood.
84.
As the diary entry indicates, Mr Taylor arranged for Bane to visit a Dr Robert Wood
during his stay at Gleneagles. A witness statement has been obtained by the CPA
from Dr Wood, who is a retired consultant physician and professor of clinical
medicine. In 1984 he was a consultant general physician attending at Perth Royal
Infirmary, and employed by Tayside Health Board. He has no specific recollection of
the consultation or the tests that he carried out upon Bane, but he confirms that Mr
Taylor was the father of a friend of his and he presumes that he agreed to see Bane as
a favour to Mr Taylor. The consultation was a private one, outside Dr Wood’s NHS
responsibilities. On 25 July 1984 Dr Wood wrote to Bane, after most of the test
results had been obtained. On the basis of this letter, and a shorter one following it up
after the final test results had been obtained in September, Dr Wood today draws the
conclusion that Bane believed he had been poisoned, and says that he evidently
projected his suspicions “in a somewhat paranoid way”. Factors contributing to
paranoia, in Dr Wood’s view, may have included his son expressing an interest in the
occult, and the probability of his wife having an extra-marital affair. The letter of 25
July makes it reasonably clear that Bane had complained of his suspicions of having
been poisoned while he was in Lugano, and suspicions that he had contracted a
serious venereal illness from Mirjana. On the latter point, Dr Wood was able to
reassure Bane that he had no serious sexually transmitted diseases. I should also add,
for the avoidance of doubt, that although Zoran was indeed interested in the occult,
there is no evidence whatever that Mirjana ever had an extra-marital affair.
85.
The third diary entry is dated 24 July 1985, and reads as follows: