Graham Ward is in trouble

This is Graham Ward, former Post Office Investigator, now working for the Metropolitan Police as part of its economic crime team.

Ward gave evidence this morning after being recalled to the Inquiry over an explicit denial he made in February which turned out not to be true.

You can read more in my report here.

I suspect these are the sort of frontline grunts we’ll see ending up being charged with criminal offences if the Met and CPS ever do get their act together.

By the way the Graham Ward above is not to be confused with the former Subpostmaster and Fenny Compton original Graham Ward (below) – altogether splendid fellow, and now hopefully not to be confused.

into the breach

Yesterday was a bit hectic – trying to put together the data leak story with Sam Greenhill at the Daily Mail whilst also doing a piece on Ron and Ian’s evidence and putting together a newsletter.

The data breach is horrendous story for those involved. I spent the evening fielding texts and messages from concerned Subpostmasters, worried about where their personal data may have already ended up. I am sorry I didn’t have the answers.

On publication last night, former Subpostmaster Chris Head wrote to Post Office CEO Nick Read asking what on earth was going on (I paraphrase).

Read replied today saying: “This is a truly terrible error and one for which at this stage i can only apologise. We are reviewing with urgency the right follow-up actions to take for those impacted, and to correct our processes. We referred this to the Information Commissioner’s Office yesterday. I will revert further as soon as I have more detail to share.”

The story has been followed up by the BBC, the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian.

Missing Linnell and Thomson

Kay Linnell has just finished giving evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry and tomorrow it is the turn of George Thomson. I doubt I am going to have the opportunity to write up either, which is a shame, but I have prior engagements I need to attend to.

Kay has been a loyal lieutenant to Sir Alan Bates for more than 15 years. She shuns the limelight almost completely. I am very proud to have got her on our original Great Post Office Trial BBC series in 2020. In his evidence on Tuesday, Second Sight’s Ron Warmington said:

“I hold Kay in the very highest regard…. I think she’s one of the few people that hasn’t been sitting in the dining car of the Horizon gravy train. I mean, she has contributed to my knowledge massively to this case without being paid.”

Kay is now part of Second Sight with Ron and Ian and still works to support Sir Alan’s efforts to get compensation for the 555 claimants in Bates v Post Office.

Thomson of Tranent

George Thomson of Tranent is another kettle of fish altogether. He ran the National Federation of Subpostmasters as a vassal of the Post Office throughout his time as General Secretary and has failed to utter a word about his actions since retiring in 2017. Well other than when I flew to Scotland to grab him outside his house for ITV News. Not that we learned much.

Expect plenty of bluster tomorrow and some emails from his time in office which will confirm what a lot of people think about him.

He doesn’t care – he’ll get a day in the national spotlight and it’ll give him something to show off about when he gets back to Tranent.

I think he’s complicit to a significant degree in this scandal. He and his predecessor Colin Baker could have stopped the Post Office’s mad prosecution spree by going public on behalf of their members – the Subpostmasters. Instead, they preferred to cut them free to watch them drown. George and Colin liked feeling important, and it was the Post Office which made them feel important, not their desperate members.

For the full charge sheet, read:

NFSP crawls out from under its rock

Other news

John Hyde at the Law Gazette has a good story today: “SRA probing 20 solicitors and firms over Post Office scandal“

Here’s a Guardian write-up of former Fujitsu exec Richard Christou’s evidence to the Inquiry yesterday.

Richard Moorhead is on his third blog post about Anthony de Garr Robinson’s evidence to the inquiry: “The secrets peril“. I would thoroughly recommend signing up to his (free) substack about the scandal, especially if you’re of a legal bent.

Enough, already

I expect three secret emails in two days is rather overdoing it, so I’m dialling things down for a bit.

My immediate future involves stumbling out of this bloody office to watch England scrape their way to a nervy draw against Denmark, setting up a crucial final group stage game against plucky Slovenia.

I’ll be back next week with more Post Office Inquiry stuff. Some bloke called Gareth Jenkins is giving evidence for (checks notes) four days. I feel like I know him already. By the end of next week, we all will.

Have a great weekend, and if you find yourself being a little bit sick in your own mouth whilst watching Mr T tomorrow – don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Best

Nick