Historic week ahead

This is a short preview email to let you know a Court of Appeal hearing you should now be aware of will start today at 10.30am in court 4 of the Royal Courts of Justice.

I am sending this to you from the jury box in court 4 surrounded by all the impressive gothic trappings of this old building. I am one of two people from the media allowed in the main court. Sam Tobin from the Press Association is sitting on the press benches and I know Tom Witherow from the Daily Mail is trying to get in.

So far this morning I think have bumped into Tracy Felstead, Jo Hamilton, Seema Misra, Janet Skinner and Nicki Arch – all campaigning Subpostmasters. It’s very strange as they are all here on their own – no partners or supporters have been allowed due to social distancing regulations.

There are two courts in use today (and the hearing is open to those who have applied via videolink). Court 5 is the overspill court. I can see Seema, Jo and Tracy have made it into this court. Neil Hudgell is here too – the solicitor representing the majority of appellants, the rest are mainly barristers.

What’s actually happening?

42 Subpostmasters are hoping to get their convictions quashed this week. 39 almost certainly will either this week or within the next month or so. Three remain in doubt. Whether an order or multiple orders will be issued to quash the convictions this week is not clear.

I am led to believe a final ruling will not be made until April, but that doesn’t necessarily stop orders being made in advance of a considered ruling. Either way there is unlikely to be a Hollywood ending with all 39 or 42 being quashed in one dramatic moment, followed by photographs and cheers on the steps of the court. Partly because of the way our justice system works and partly because there’s still a pandemic on and many people are unable to travel to court.

BBC Radio 4 Today Programme

Today’s hearing made the BBC Radio 4 news bulletins this morning and appellant Jo Hamilton gave a pre-recorded interview to Justin Webb at 8.20am. You can hear it here on the BBC Sounds website.

Jo spoke about her 18 year battle for justice. She described how the Post Office “fought us every way” that their “attitude hasn’t changed” and they’re “still fighting people… and… it’s just not right.”

She said of the government re the Post Office “they keep denying that they’re linked and it’s an arms-length business, but they’re clearly joined at the hip.”

Justin Webb asked Jo: “What does this say to you about the way this country is run?”

Jo replied: “Well basically it just means if you’ve got enough money and power, you can squash people… they had a bottomless purse to fight us.”

After the interview Justin pointed listeners to the BBC Radio 4 series on the scandal called the Great Post Office Trial, which was kindly endorsed by his co-presenter Mishal Husain. Newer secret emailers may not have come across it before. I humbly also recommend it.

The Sparrow has landed

As I have absolutely no idea how much documentation I will get to see or what I will be allowed to report over the next 4 or 5 days, I thought I would start the week by publishing some information I know I can put in the public domain – the heavily redacted board minutes from the Post Office Project Sparrow board sub-committee, which was set up to discuss the various issues arising from the 2013 Complaint and Mediation Scheme.

Despite being a sub-committee of the Post Office board, there appears to be no reference to the sub-committee existing in any published Post Office literature to date. Its existence only became apparent when Paula Vennells, the former Post Office CEO revealed it in evidence to the BEIS select committee inquiry into the Horizon scandal last year. Ms Vennells told the inquiry it was that committee’s decision to stop giving certain information to Second Sight – basically where the cover-up started.

I wonder if the redacted sections mention the Clarke Advice and the CK Sift Review? Perhaps, given how keen the Court of Appeal has been to stop information getting into the public domain, we’ll never know. Either way, it makes for interesting reading.

Live tweeting

It’s my plan to live-tweet everything from court today (unless an order prohibits me). Even if you don’t “do” twitter, you can still read all my tweets here. Just keep refreshing the page and they’ll unfold before you.

I’ll then write up a short report this evening (unless an order prohibits me) and then I’ll write you a secret email to point you in its direction and offer a bit more colour and context to whatever’s been going on.

I realise there is some overlap in the Venn diagram of people who read my tweets, people who see the blog posts, and secret emailers, so apologies in advance if there is some repetition.

Thanks

I hope you can join me for the live tweeting, and thank you all once again for donating your money to allow me to report this case from court. I realise there are lots of people (including some appellants) who want to be in court today, but who are not able to or are not allowed to, due to the coronavirus situation.

Your contributions will allow them to follow what is going on. I hope that alone makes you feel good about the donations you have kindly made.

Right [flexes fingers]. See you on twitter, and then back here tonight!

Nick