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 to spin through the entire day, please have a look at this collation of my live tweets, supplemented by screenshots of important documents.

If you have 50 minutes on your hands, I urge you watch the video of the afternoon session, starting at Tim Moloney KC’s questioning of Smith at 44m02s, followed by Sam Stein KC and Ed Henry KC. It is quite something.

I have focused on the treatment of Seema Misra, highlighted by her barrister Ed Henry. She was never told by the Post Office she had a case for appealing her conviction within days of Simon Clarke of Cartwright King advising the Post Office that their expert witness in her trial had potentially perjured himself or perverted the course of justice.

You can read my write up here, with a bonus supplementary piece below it on another document brought to light by Flora Page, acting on behalf of Subpostmasters.

Enemies of the Business

It is a Second Sight draft report commissioned by former Post Office General Counsel Susan Crichton which eviscerates the Post Office’s cadre of investigators. Second Sight say it is plain that Post Office security team assume guilt, fail to properly investigate the root cause of financial discrepancies and consider Subpostmasters “enemies of the business”.

Any sensible person, on receiving the report, would immediately wonder if the convictions secured by these goons were safe. The report’s eventual recipient, Crichton’s successor, Chris Aujard, admitted yesterday he read it (in January 2014) and did precisely nothing. I have uploaded the document to the bottom of this web page.

What really stuck out for me about yesterday’s evidence was how badly the Post Office’s expensively assembled internal, external, civil and criminal lawyers messed things up so badly. I’m being polite. It seems some actively colluded against the interests of justice.

it could have been so different. Simon Clarke acted with integrity when he read the Second Sight Interim Report, wrote the first Clarke Advice and essentially brought a halt to the Post Office’s habit of prosecuting innocent people. Why this was not properly followed through is a mystery.

Advised by Brian Altman KC, Cartwright King, Bond Dickinson and the Post Office conspired to keep essential information from Seema Misra which would have allowed her to appeal her convicted in 2013, not 2020.

Why? Why would anyone do that? Let alone a bunch of lawyers…

I spoke to Seema and Davinder Misra during the lunch break. They are rebuilding their lives. Slowly. They will never get back the years of being penniless, ashamed and desperate, missing important stages of their childrens’ development because they were trying to scrape a living. Spending day after day with a raging injustice knocking around inside their heads, wearing away at their mental health.

There was no good reason not to tell Seema Misra that the Post Office expert witness at her trial had withheld crucial information from the defence team, judge and jury. None whatsoever. But that’s what they did.

Come to Hayes on Sunday – please!

I know I’ve been wanging on about this and I hate begging, but I would be really grateful if you could forward this plea on to anyone you know in London. Hayes is our only London date of the tour and has sold the fewest tickets (apart from Swindon, but I’ll get to that next week).

The venue is a 10 minute taxi ride from Hayes and Harlington station on the Elizabeth Line and it has a free car park, which is an unexpected bonus for a London theatre.

My guest is Parmod Kalia, who is a wonderful man and very powerful speaker. These nights are very special and unlikely to be repeated. If you live in the West London/Middlesex area, do come along. It will change your perspective on this scandal, I promise.

Train strike

Right – enough hustling – I realise the only reason you are reading this is because you have financially supported my work or donated money to the Horizon Scandal Fund, either or both of which I am deeply grateful for.

It is your cash which is keeping me covering the Inquiry and the Post Office Scandal website afloat. I am hoping the content I am uploading will be of use as a public resource.

Please note I am not going to be at the Inquiry today as I have two talks to present in my home town of Walton on Thames. I will watch what I can of Jarnail Singh either live or on catch up, but I won’t have the capacity to report what is said.

I plan to be at the Inquiry next week, but there is a train strike, which might confine me to barracks. If so, I’ll do what I can from there.

Thanks for all the notes and correspondence. I hope you have a good weekend.

Nick

Post Office Scandal – The Inside Story

In April and May 2024, I’ll be visiting various theatres in towns around England.

At each venue I’ll be joined by a former Subpostmaster (apart from Walton when Second Sight’s Ian Henderson will be in the chair). There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions and learn even more about the scandal.

All the dates and box office links are here. Please do have a look, see if there’s a venue near you, and if you fancy it, book a couple of tickets. Please also feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends who may live near a venue!

I’ll be around after each show in the foyer or bar and look forward to saying hello if you can make it.