… Another Conviction Quashed!
Well, hello there
Last week I was Jeremy Kyle, this week I’m Vanessa. My TalkTV adventures are getting ever stranger. More on that later. First:
Another conviction quashed
Jacqueline Falcon becomes (by my calculation) the 101st Subpostmaster or Post Office worker to have her conviction overturned. It happened today at the Court of Appeal, though Jacqueline (from Northumberland) was not present when it happened.
Click on this Sky News story for a lovely pic of Jacqueline and her daughter Summer. Another appalling story, another family dragged through the mill for no reason.
I’ve said before any innocent person given a criminal conviction should make any concerned citizen very angry. We are not capable of being 900 x Very Angry, but that’s where we are.
“Public Interest” “cases” get treated like actual human beings
I am delighted to tell you that, according to the BBC’s Emma Simpson (later confirmed to TalkTV by the government), a small number of horrendously disadvantaged Subpostmasters have finally had some good news.
For reasons which I think should weigh heavily on the conscience of Kevin Hollinrake MP (the Post Office minister), Nick Read (the Post Office Chief Executive) and every single Post Office lawyer, the Public Interest Five got their convictions quashed, but, up until January 2024 the Post Office – backed by the government – believed they did not qualify for proper compensation. More here.
Thanks to the sterling work of the Horizon Compensation Board and the magical effect of an ITV drama, the government has finally u-turned and agreed that the Public Interest Five can have access to proper compensation for the hell they were put through.
I have got to know three of the affected five: Parmod, Teju and Vipin. Whilst I have not seen the prosecution files in any of their cases, I understand the PO/govt’s reason for withholding compensation was based on the fact that all three “confessed” to stealing money.
It transpires that all three “confessions” were apparently easily disprovable and made under duress. Did the Post Office investigators bother to check everything out to see if it held up? No, of course they didn’t.
Unforgivably, after all five “Public Interest” cases had their convictions overturned, the government decided to side with the Post Office over the courts and continue to deny these Subpostmasters access to proper compensation.
I hope this very, very sorry circumstance haunts all involved to their graves. Why would you believe the Post Office over a court of law?
Anatomy of a scoop
On 26 January this year, the BBC had a wee exclusive. It published extracts from the unredacted minutes to two Post Office “Project Sparrow” board sub-committee meetings in April 2014. For more about Project Sparrow, you probably need to read my blog post, but don’t do that yet or you’ll spoil the surprise.
One set of minutes revealed, amongst other things, that the Post Office only intended to make “nominal” or “token” payments to Subpostmasters under the terms of its 2013 Complaint and Mediation scheme, whatever the merits of an applicant Subpostmasters’ case.
The other looked at options to bring the independent investigation into Subpostmasters cases “within the control of the Post Office”, ie removing the external investigators and the rather crucial independent element.
So – a scoop for the BBC. Yet for some reason the BBC did not publish the actual minutes themselves, they just quoted from them. I have now published the unredacted minutes the BBC was referring to (you can now click on the link). It turns out I had them in my possession since 2021.
This episode has made me determined to trawl through my document archive to see what else might be of interest in the light of the public’s newly-acquired appetite for stories about this scandal.
Back to ITV
This seems an opportune moment to tell you that after I have finished being Vanessa (along with Daisy) at the end of this week, I am going to start working in the ITV News investigations unit, on a special brief, looking at Post Office stories.
Over the last few weeks there are many people who have got in touch to send me news lines, or documents, or who are themselves victims of this scandal. I will be going back through my emails (as well as what is now a 14 year document archive), but if there is something interesting you have to tell me (or have already told me), please do get in touch next week, when I will finally have the capacity to work on whatever you send me.
To re-iterate: anything I receive from anyone is always assumed to be sent in absolute confidence. I will never publish or share anything without working closely with my correspondent to ensure they are completely happy about everything to do with the process at all times.
Protecting sources is the most sacred thing about doing this job. I promise everything you send on is safe with me. So please do send me what you know.
Govt knew the about bonuses that became Bonusgate
Channel 4’s Alex Thomson has been doing some great work in recent weeks on the Post Office beat. He (along with his colleague Nanette van der Laan) has revealed the government signed off on the bonuses Post Office execs awarded themselves for participating in the Public Inquiry into the scandal. Watch the piece here. If you missed it, here is my take on #bonusgate.
Other news
Karl Flinders at Computer Weekly: “More than 1,000 subpostmasters could have used second faulty Post Office system“
That’s all from me for now. I’ll be back soon.
Take care
Nick