Brian Altman’s role in perpetuating the Post Office scandal is self-evident. He gave advice which helped a bent client keep a lid on a gargantuan miscarriage of justice. Whether that was down to any professional failings was in issue today. Altman had sight of clear evidence of criminal activity (orders to shred documents, misleading a…
Belinda Cortes-Martin had a dual role. Whilst she was supposedly heading up the Post Office’s Complaint and Mediation Scheme’s Working Group secretariat, supporting and answering to the Working Group’s independent Chair, Sir Anthony Hooper (a retired Court of Appeal judge), Cortes-Martin was also Programme Director for Project Sparrow, the top secret Post Office body set…
Today we got some insight into the catastrophic and frankly sinister failings of a group of lawyers at the heart of the Post Office scandal. The lengths Brian Altman (then) QC et al went to to avoid their post-conviction disclosure duties to former Subpostmaster Seema Misra (who was sent to prison whilst eight weeks pregnant)…
The mystery of who at the Post Office (or Bond Dickinson) decided to shred minutes relating to an important meeting at the Post Office to discuss problems with the Horizon IT system got a little more dramatic today as Martin Smith, a solicitor working for Cartwright King, gave evidence. Smith was a prosecuting solicitor who…
Hugh Flemington is a very careful man. The former Post Office Head of Legal spent his morning in the Inquiry witness chair characterising his involvement in the Post Office scandal as accidental, at best. The problem was, the documents do seem to suggest he was involved at some level, though he couldn’t recall how. He…
Damning evidence about the culture within the Post Office at the very highest level was brought to light during the course of Angela van den Bogerd’s second and likely final day of evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry today. You can read my live-tweets and see the screenshots of documents posted up during…
Welcome
Hello and welcome to Post Office Scandal – a website dedicated to covering the multi-faceted, ongoing, Post Office Horizon IT scandal.
My name is Nick Wallis, I am a journalist and I am responsible for the content on this website. You can contact me here.
I have written a book called The Great Post Office Scandal, fronted a Radio 4 series, co-written a Private Eye special and been involved in three Panoramas as (variously) producer, presenter and consultant.
The predecessor to this website is Post Office Trial, which covered the Bates v Post Office High Court litigation and the subsequent hearings at the Court of Appeal.
Welcome! This page features all the upcoming dates for my talk: “Post Office Scandal – the Inside Story”. The presentation features a full history of the scandal – how it happened, who was responsible and provides some insight into the personal stories of those directly affected. I’ll also bring you up to speed on the…
Latest episode:
35: Ep35 – Paul Scully MP, former Post Office minister – Investigating the Post Office Scandal
In which Nick interviews the former Post Office minister about his experience of taking office in the weeks after the Bates v Post Office settlement, overseeing the establishment of the Post Office Horizon Inquiry and the various compensation schemes.
What the Subpostmasters were up against Hi I’ve spent the day tinkering with the Post Office Scandal website, re-opening the tip jar and writing up yesterday’s extraordinary evidence at the Inquiry. It wasn’t just extraordinary thanks to Elaine Cottam, the woman pictured above. The Post Office contributed to the general sense of astonishment by managing…
Exeter University needs you Professor Richard Moorhead will be known to some of you. He writes a well-regarded legal ethics blog (“Lawyer Watch”) and a free substack site dedicated to matters arising from the Post Office Horizon scandal. He is also a member of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board. In addition to this Prof Moorhead…
Special podcast episode! Hello everyone I am delighted to tell you that the English language version of Noel (and Sian) Thomas’s book The Stamp of Innocence is finally available as an e-book via Amazon. To mark this auspicious occasion, I interview Noel and his ghostwriter Aled Gwyn Jôb about the book and its Welsh language…
A family’s fight Hi everyone Apologies for the radio silence. This is the first in what might be a little flurry of newsletters. I’ve been working on multiple Post Office-related projects which are starting to come to fruition. The piece I mentioned in the last newsletter featuring Wendy Cousins’ family is going out on ITV…
Former PO Security chief gives evidence Hi everyone It’s sometimes a little bit too easy to watch the Inquiry at home – listening along on double speed catch up whilst doing household chores or taking notes. I wanted to be in the room today for John Scott – the Post Office’s former Head of Security,…
No fun, no games Apologies for troubling you twice in a week. I wasn’t aiming to write much, but I’ve put up two blog posts you might be interested in and there has been quite a bit of journalistic activity elsewhere. Former Post Office auditor, investigator and disclosure officer Helen Rose gave evidence on Tuesday.…
Hello, my name is Nick Wallis. I am a freelance journalist. This website is designed to be a hub for my activity reporting the Post Office Horizon Scandal. Most of the work I have done on this story is crowdfunded. The crowdfunding pays for the journalism on this website. Occasionally I get lucky and someone…
The Horizon Scandal Fund is a registered charity, which exists to help people by disbursing small cash grants to those in need. The grants could be for access to legal advice, counselling, therapy, travel, social events, hardship alleviation and much more. For more details, visit the website here: https://www.horizonscandalfund.org/
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