plus: Beer Mug

Morning

I got the early train up to London 0556 and refused to wear a coat as it’s sunny and it’s June. Silly idea. I’m currently warming up in a Pret near Aldwych House.

Oh Tony

Today will see two senior barristers give evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. I first saw Anthony de Garr Robinson in action on 26 January 2017 during a preliminary skirmish of Bates v Post Office at the Royal Courts of Justice.

I had been promised two minutes of live television by the One Show to explain what happened. Unfortunately the hearing over-ran, so I legged it out of court only to find the RCJ’s giant main doors had been locked. In those days I didn’t know there was a side entrance.

All the ushers and staff had gone home so I just flapped around on my own in the semi-dark of the Great Hall as I tried to decide which gloomy corridor I should run down in the hope of finding a way out.

Eventually the clack of heels on flagstones was heard at the back of the Hall and I found a nice lady who pointed me to the exit. More on that (and what was actually revealed during that skirmish) in my book.

There has been an application

I saw many more hours of de Garr Robinson in 2019 as he led the Post Office’s defence at the Horizon Issues trial. dGR did a decent enough job of defending the indefensible (and you can read the daily write-ups of his cross-examinations here), but affected to being completely caught on the hop when the Post Office pressed the big red button marked “Recusal”.

This is what transpired in Court 26 of the Rolls Building just after lunch on Thu 21 March:

MR JUSTICE FRASER: I have received an application, Mr De Garr Robinson. Do you know about it?

MR DE GARR ROBINSON: My Lord, I know that there has been an application, that is almost all I know.

MR JUSTICE FRASER: Has it been served on the claimants?

MR DE GARR ROBINSON: My understanding is it has, my Lord, yes.

MR JUSTICE FRASER: Do you know about it?

MR GREEN: My Lord, we have just seen it, yes.

MR JUSTICE FRASER: I just saw it five minutes ago. It is an application for me to recuse myself as being the managing judge in these proceedings which means effectively… and also for this trial to stop. Although the application says “adjourn the trial”, I think it really means start it again with another judge.

MR DE GARR ROBINSON: I haven’t seen the application, my Lord.

He might not have see the application, but according to Jason Beer KC, on reading the Common Issues judgment de Garr Robinson “recommended that the Post Office consider making an application to seek the recusal of Mr Justice Fraser on the grounds of apparent bias” (see Nailing Sir Peter Fraser – the legal hit squad).

You can read my write ups of the recusal application in Going Postal and Je Recuse.

Grabbit and Runner

The Recusal application had also been encouraged by and put into the hands of Lord Grabiner, one of the most expensive barristers in London (and therefore the world). It was Grabiner who was a key figure in persuading the Post Office that Mr Justice Fraser had handed down a biased Common Issues judgment and therefore needed to be recused from the Bates v Post Office litigation.

During the recusal hearing Lord Grabiner told Mr Justice Fraser that he had taken advice from a “judicial figure or barrister” before making the application, something the Court of Appeal decided had been made in an attempt to put the court in terrorem – ie with a view to warning Fraser he was in the process of making a terrible career mistake.

It took me three years to find out the “judicial figure” was Lord Justice Neuberger, former President of the Supreme Court. Neuberger has not been called to the Inquiry, presumably to spare his blushes, which is shameful. Unless, like the Post Office’s Jane McLeod, he too has done a runner.

You can read the write-up of the recusal hearing here. You can read about Neuberger in Recusal Top Dog Revealed.

No mug

Given the seniority of the witnesses, I would be surprised if Jason Beer KC is not asking the questions today. Beer has become something of a cult hero in recent months.

The above mug was commissioned by Ned Humphreys as a birthday present for his father Dean, and his photo is shared with permission. I thought the addition of the legend: “Good morning, sir. Can you see and hear us?” around the picture on the mug would set it off perfectly.

This got me wondering whether a line of Inquiry “merch” with all profits to the Horizon Scandal Fund might put a smile on people’s faces and make a few bob at the same time. Here is another example.

This time a birthday card from Roger Elliot to his wife Julie, again, shared with permission.

Happy birthdays, Julie and Dean, and well done Ned and Roger. More examples welcome. Just hit reply and tell me you don’t mind me publishing them with your name attached or anonymously. Either way is fine by me.

Other news

I am grateful to the many secret emailers who have drawn my attention to the other news lines around over the last four days. Here are a selection:

Post Office fought litigation ‘to resolve key questions’, says refusenik ex-GC – Law Gazette

Family of late Post Office victim win fight to clear her name – BBC

England: Judges ‘failed’ subpostmasters – Scottish Legal News. This comment is in sharp contrast to the Lady Chief Justice, who seems to believe the judiciary’s culpability for this scandal is beyond reproach. The Times has written this up too: Postmasters ‘were failed by judges’ in Horizon scandal.

The Global Legal Post has the headline: Post Office scandal points to ‘corporate-legal cover up culture’ within profession, academic claims (that academic being Prof Richard Moorhead.

Moorhead has written a good piece about Alice Perkins’ evidence called Conspiratorial Logics.

Fans of peace and socialism will be pleased to read the Morning Star article: “There must be no hiding place for scandal-hit Post Office bosses, food workers demand”, which writes up a resolution about the Post Office scandal made at the recent Bakers Food & Allied Workers Union annual conference in Staffordshire. Good for them! Up the bakers.

One more: Paula Vennells – the mask slips – by Rosie Brocklehurst on Labour Hub

And finally…

I have been warned something seriously big is going down in the next few days in relation to Therium, Freeths and Alan Bates. If it’s true (and I’ve only heard rumours to date), it’ll set the cat among the pigeons. Let’s wait and see.

Thanks to everyone who has signed up since Friday. It’s great to have you here. I’ll get a write up of what happened today together after close of play and send you another newsletter tomorrow, when we’ll be looking forward to the evidence of Tom Beezer from Womble Bond Dickinson (the Post Office solicitors who instructed both De Garr Robinson and Grabiner) and Matthew Lenton, a document manager from Fujitsu. Given I know virtually nothing about either man, it will be a much shorter newsletter!

Yours

Nick