Scandal hits home

Hello secret email friends

I am currently holed up in a cottage in Devon quietly trying to write a book about this scandal, but the media interest in this story is still gratifyingly present and I am have been getting regular calls to come onto various outlets and explain the story.

On Friday I was on Today, BBC Surrey, ITV News, BBC Breakfast, BBC Midlands Today, Times Radio, BBC London and LBC, on Saturday I did the World Service and on Sunday I headed west, thinking that the immediate interest in the story was over. Then Paula Vennells announced she had resigned from the boards of Dunelm and Morrisons and will no longer practice as a priest.

I pinged off a few tweets (starting: “And still Paula Vennells has questions to answer – how did she fail so badly?”) first thing from my rural retreat, and before I knew it I was on 5live speaking to Nicky Campbell at 8.05am for more than five minutes (I think a guest must have fallen through). Then I was asked to help with a slot on Radio 2’s Vine Show at 12.30pm. This ended with me talking about the repeal of s.69 of the PACE Act (1984), which is not what I expected when the conversation started.

I’ve just finished the day speaking to BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Humberside who had secured interviews with Subpostmasters Deirdre Connolly and Janet Skinner. I have also written up my thoughts on Vennells’ departure here.

More appeals

But of course, this story never stops. Hudgells solicitors, who represented the biggest chunk of appellants in the Court of Appeal on Friday (and who have a very nice photo of some of them and their team on their website homepage), have today announced that more than 50 new appeals are being launched on behalf of other former subpostmasters against convictions relating to the Post Office Horizon scandal.

Of those, 38 cases relate to people convicted in Crown Court. Their cases have been submitted to the Court of Appeal.

A further 13 relating to convictions in Magistrates courts, have been sent to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) for consideration.

Plans for getting compensation for Hudgells clients whose convictions have been overturned also appear well advanced with the firm saying they will launch their first civil claims for malicious prosecution this week. Watch this space.

Ministerial statement

I have been alerted to a ministerial statement which will be made by Paul Scully at some stage tomorrow. So far the government’s position is that the settlement for the civil claimants is “full and final” and that no one should be held responsible for the scandal. It will be interesting to see if that changes.

Also tomorrow there is a Court of Appeal hearing with a difference. This one concerns Paul Marshal and Flora Page, who are being investigated by the Court to see if their passing of the Clarke Advice to (respectively) the Metropolitan Police and a journalist amounts to contempt.

Both Paul and Flora stepped down from representing their clients (Seema Misra, Tracy Felstead and Janet Skinner) as a result of the Court’s decision to investigate them, but the work the two of them have done behind the scenes in helping Subpostmasters is phenomenal.

I very much doubt the prosecutions of the 39 appellants would be ruled an affront to the public conscience without their early groundwork, and I think we are about to see the implications of such a ruling play out. In fact, with calls for a criminal investigation into what the Post Office was doing and Ms Vennells’ CBE under threat, we may have already seen the first consequences.

I will be watching the hearing tomorrow and I will let you know what the upshot is.

Legal twitter

That dark place called legal twitter was a full of exotic cries on Friday as m’learned friends started to chatter about the role their profession may have played in the Horizon Scandal.

One of the foremost thinkers in this field is Richard Moorhead, whose influential blog is widely read across the Inns of Court. In respect of Friday’s ruling and the scandal more generally he simply asks “Where are the lawyers?

David Allen Green is another legal writer whose work receives widespread acclaim. Here are his thoughts on miscarriages of justice due to disclosure issues and containing links to a further two Horizon posts. Both men have been kind enough to mention my work, but not for its legal insight! I’ll leave that to them.

Friday photo appeal

Occasionally I put out an appeal – and I wonder – if you were present outside court Friday and took some photos that you are happy to share, could you email them to me?

The scenes of celebration were magnificent and I am aware that whilst trying to wrangle a film crew, a radio producer, say hello to everyone, record my own interviews and generally faff around, I failed to take very many good shots myself.

If you do have some pics you are okay for me to use (big wides of the celebrations including Tom Hedges with his prosecco and the JFSA banner, as well as individual portraits) without a fee, I would be v grateful.

Please state in your email something like “I am happy for you to use these images on your website and social media and share them for non-commercial use without credit in perpetuity.” If you don’t feel comfortable with that – that’s absolutely fine – don’t send anything!

Noobs

The widespread attention this story has garnered over the past few days has led to a number of new secret emailers joining the fold. You are very welcome here, and I hope you will find these occasional emails useful.

The generosity shown by so many people over the last couple of months means that I have been able to report all the Court of Appeal action and the various developments on the story out of court. The number of pre-sales made also means I might break even on the book.

The information which I have been able to exchange with recipients of this newsletter – experts, insiders, campaigners, legislators, lawyers, supporters and fellow hacks – has been essential to my journalism. I remain deeply grateful to anyone who takes the time to get in touch. Please accept my apologies if I am not able to respond, but I do read everything.

Finally….

Friday was an amazing day to witness and I suspect it will live long in the memory. Congratulations again to everyone involved who has worked so hard to right so many horrible historic wrongs. Particular congratulations to the (now) 45 people – three of whom are sadly no longer with us – whose reputations have been fully restored. I suspect you will soon be joined by many more.

Best regards

Nick