Hi there
Just a quick one today.
If you want to watch or read the conclusion to Jason Beer’s opening statement to Phase 2 of the inquiry, you can watch the youtube video here or read the transcript here.
Today we will hear from the legal representatives for Subpostmasters and then, at around 4pm, the National Federation of Subpostmasters will make its opening statement. I am very much looking forward to watching that. Proceedings start at 10am, and the live video for that should be available here.
Recommended journalism
Rebecca Thomson has written up her interview with David Enright, a lawyer representing more than 100 Subpostmasters. David tells Rebecca no deadline has been set for compensating the ‘most desperate’ bankrupt Post Office victims. You can read that here.
Colletta Smith from the BBC has got an exclusive interview with two Fujitsu employees, one whom was on the frontline dealing with Horizon problems and one who currently sits on the Fujitsu board. The latter individual, Andy McNaughton, says the board wasn’t aware of any significant technical problems when Horizon was being rolled out and doesn’t think Fujitsu has anything to apologise for. Read Colletta’s report here. I am grateful to the secret emailer who brought this to my attention.
Further reading
Stephen Mason has got in touch to tell me he has published a paper by fellow barrister Paul Marshall on the wider legal aspects of the scandal. I always find Paul’s writing to be lucid and persuasive, and would recommend downloading his paper, which you can find here.
Mason and Marshall have also contributed to a briefing note written for MPs about the legal presumption that if computers seem to be working then it’s safe to assume they are. Read it here.
Press release corner
Professor Richard Moorhead and his team at Exeter University have been attempting to assess the mental health damage done to Subpostmasters as a result of what happened to them. There are some interesting statistics in this press release.
And finally…
… a grateful welcome to all the new secret emailers. I do appreciate your support. If you are new-ish to this story want to find out more, do visit my website postofficescandal.uk – it will hopefully point you in the direction of some interesting reading.
I’ll be back at the inquiry tomorrow with Rebecca to hopefully hear opening statements from Fujitsu, the Post Office and the government, then we’ll try to get you another podcast reviewing the week’s events before the weekend begins!
Best regards
Nick