Call for Vennells to give evidence
Good evening secret emailers
There’s been quite a bit of activity over the past three days so I thought I’d keep you up to speed:
On Saturday I published excerpts of correspondence between the Communications Workers Union, Sir Wyn Williams and the Post Office, in which the Post Office agrees to release existing and former staff members (including serving and former Subpostmasters) from any Non-Disclosure Agreements for the purposes of Sir Wyn Williams’ Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry.
This technically opens the door for Paula Vennells and other former Post Office execs to give evidence about what they, the government and their colleagues were up to, but of course, there’s a catch. Read the article here.
If you want to give evidence to the inquiry (which can be from anyone about anything to do with the Post Office’s way of working and the Horizon IT system) it’s currently open for business and will be accepting submissions until 23 Feb 2021. All the details are here.
What else is floating around?
– Angela van den Bogerd’s attempt to secure gainful employment at the Welsh Football Association has run into some resistance. Ms van den Bogerd was found by a High Court judge to have attempted to mislead him on two occasions under cross-examination in the first Bates v Post Office trial.
Alan Bates, founder of the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance is in no doubt “she was hugely involved in the scandal.”
Full story in Computer Weekly here.
– The Sunday Telegraph has reported the government’s unwillingness to make the Clarke advice public – a document commissioned by the Post Office in 2013. Brian Altman QC recently said the Clarke advice revealed that:
“Mr Gareth Jenkins, an expert witness – in many of the prosecutions [of Subpostmasters] may have failed to disclose information, that he was well aware of, that Horizon has bugs and errors in it.”
… something I discovered the Post Office chose not to tell parliament, Second Sight or the JFSA (see my oral submission to the Court of Appeal).
Mr Jenkins is currently under criminal investigation by the Metropolitan Police.
Read the Sunday Telegraph piece here. You may need to log in or sign up.
Incidentally I’m still waiting for the approved ruling by the Court of Appeal against my application for the Clarke advice. I have no idea why it’s taking so long. I said at the time I would respect the judges’ decision, which I do, but I am beginning to think it is wrong. It’s possible it could be challenged but it’s hard to do that without knowing what the judgment actually says.
In case you missed it
The Daily Mail reported on the quashing of six Subpostmaster convictions (read the article here), as did BBC Breakfast (sadly no longer on iplayer)
You can also watch the piece I made for ITV News hereand read the report about it on the Post Office Trial website, here.
What’s happening next?
On Thursday this week we all go back to the Royal Courts of Justice to find out whether the Court of Appeal must, should or doesn’t need to consider whether the Post Office’s behaviour in prosecuting 47 appellant Subpostmasters constituted an “affront to the public conscience”.
From what I could make out the Post Office thinks it is not necessary for the court to consider this second limb of abuse of process (propounded by the Criminal Cases Review Commission in its Statement of Reasons), a view shared by the majority of the appellants’ legal representatives.
However some appellants are very keen the “affront” question is considered. Read my piece about the pros and cons of both approaches here.
As the Post Office itself pointed out, if the second limb is not in issue, the Clarke advice may cease to become relevant to proceedings and therefore may never be “referred to” in open court.
This means it will sink gently to the bottom of the sea, protected by the briny of confidentiality and privilege, waves closing over it for good.
And with that cheery thought…
…adieu.
Nick
PS Thanks as ever for all the messages and info – I am sorry I didn’t get a chance over the weekend to reply to everyone directly. I do read everything I get sent and I am grateful to everyone who takes the trouble to get in contact. If you want to contact me directly, just hit reply to this email.