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Post Office Inquiry: Keeping their Knees on Seema’s Neck
Lawyers colluded to prolong injustice I think yesterday afternoon’s session at the Inquiry was one of the most devastating I have seen to date. Martin Smith, a former employee of Cartwright King solicitors, gave his second day of evidence, after a remote cameo from former interim Post Office General Counsel Chris Aujard. If you want…
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Post Office Inquiry – the shredding mystery becomes clearer and murkier at the same time
Who made the decision? So many answers, so many more questions. Yesterday’s evidence began with Harry Bowyer’s second stint in the chair. Bowyer was an in-house barrister at Cartwright King charged with providing advice when it came to helping the Post Office prosecute Subpostmasters. He was bright, bluff, confident and unconvincing, constantly repeating the mantra…
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Senior former Post Office lawyer could not tell Inquiry what the criminal standard of proof is, and other worrying tales…
Careful, Hugh Sorry, this is very rushed. I got asked to go on the Today programme at the last minute to talk about the confirmation of the new Post Office Chair, Nigel Railton. It is good to see that Nigels are still being given a fair crack of the whip in the corporate world. I…
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Post Office Inquiry – bonus for lying exec
Angela the Automaton Morning all. I’m going to have to get quicker at writing on-the-day copy. I find it the hardest element of being a journalist because it’s the thing I’ve done the least. Yesterday’s session was done before 4pm and I didn’t file to the website before 10pm. Analysing the evidence, picking the “best”…
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Post Office Inquiry – Angela Rides Again
Bogey back for more Hello, My alarm call this morning was only 5.45am as I’d agreed to go into the TalkTV studio to talk about Angela van den Bogerd on their breakfast programme. It’s a half hour walk to the station where I discovered no trains would be running for the foreseeable future. Curses. TalkTV…
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Van den Bogerd starts two days of evidence, Aujard resigns and Vennells resiles
G’mornin’ – early doors in Aldwych I had a 4.30am alarm call this morning so I could be driven to London to spend two minutes on television at 6.30am on BBC1 explaining the significance of Angela van den Bogerd to a breakfast audience. The Hatchet Lady is giving evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT…
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Crichton’s Pity Party is not quite over, Aujard still listed and a Hertfordshire/Essex Weekender beckons
Oh, Susan… Witnesses to the Post Office Horizon IT scandal never fail to disappoint. A defining feature of each existing or former employee is the complete lack of interest in the plight of Subpostmasters. They only seem to care about the business and their own careers. Susan Crichton was the latest in a long line…
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Penny’s Printouts, Crichton to speak and Post Office Tour Rolls On
The Magic Penny What a week! Let’s start with Penny Williams’ revelation. She told me about the printouts in the dressing room shortly before we took the stage in Launceston. I asked her more about them on stage and whilst we drove to Penny’s pie-making facility in Helston to sample some quite wonderful pasties I…
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Post Office Inquiry – the Cook and Crozier show
plus: if it’s Saturday, it must be Crewe Hello there Welcome to another newsletter written using speech-to-text dictation software. Apologies in advance for any errors. I will try to check this thoroughly, but I also want to get it out of the door as soon as possible. Gurney time I had my operation yesterday. Producer…
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Post Office Inquiry – Arbuthnot and Hooper give evidence
The dogged parliamentary campaigner Good morning I made it to the public inquiry yesterday, where I witnessed Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom’s evidence, and caught up with a few former Subpostmasters, lawyers, journalist and ushers who I hadn’t seen in a while. I have started to write up what I can about Lord Arbuthnot’s evidence. I…