Hello all

I’m doing a close reading of the judgment and posting up choice chunks on the postofficetrial.com

I would urge you to have a look at Part 3 of this series, which is about the Post Office witnesses, particularly Angela van den Bogerd, a Post Office director.

The judge has ruled that he will be very unlikely to accept anything she says in court again unless it is backed by incontrovertible documentary evidence.

Angela van den Bogerd is due to be cross-examined in court tomorrow. I am very much looking forward to being there.

Below are some more links you may find useful.

The judgment

Karl Flinders’ write up for Computer Weekly

Channel 4 News report

Sky News write up

The Register’s take, with its usual brilliant headline

My write up for the ITV News website

Shadow Minister for Postal Services tweet

CWU’s Mark Baker calls for Board of Inquiry or Parliamentary Commission

My choice chunks from the judgment part 2, covering paragraphs 280 – 364

My choice chunks from the judgment part 1, covering paragraphs 1 to 279

My short take for postofficetrial.com about being there when the judgment was handed down on Friday

Post Office response to the judgment

“Fireside chat” reassurance attempt by the Post Office’s Retail Services CEO to Subpostmasters

NFSP response to the judgment

If I have missed anything, please forward the link to me by hitting reply to this email. I will put them all up on postofficetrial.com

You will be aware that the judge has said (in par 523 of his judgment) “The Post Office appears, at least at times, to conduct itself as though it is answerable only to itself.”

This continues to be the case. It has refused to offer anyone up for interview on the judgment in the same way it has refused to provide anyone for interview in the years I have been covering this story. That is wholly unacceptable.

You can help bring pressure to bear on the Post Office by sharing some of the links above. The Post Office has just suffered a crushing victory and you can bet it will not want many people, especially influential and important people, to know too much about it. The judge has made it clear the Post Office seems to put reputation management above telling the truth in court. That in itself is a big story, but it shows you what it fears the most.

If you feel so inclined, find the best write up of the judgment in the links above and forward it to every journalist and news organisation you can think of.

Thanks

Thank you to everyone who forwarded links, sent me emails, tweeted their encouragement and shared their thoughts on the judgment and what should happen next. I am sorry if I haven’t had a chance to respond to them personally. I am still struggling to get all my reading on the judgment done before the Horizon trial re-starts tomorrow.

Yours

Nick

Please feel free to forward this email. The more people who read it, the more people find out about what is the biggest trial going through the UK courts right now.