Next tranche of appellants reach court

Hi there

Tomorrow I will be squeezing into my suit and hacking my way up to London to spend the day in court.

Thirty-one appellants are having their cases considered at the Court of Appeal. Ten of the Post Office prosecution appeals are unopposed. All but one of the appeals were made direct to the Court of Appeal. All but one of tomorrow’s appellants are represented by Hudgell solicitors and three are DWP prosecutions using Horizon evidence.

The DWP have been infuriating in their response to press inquiries, firstly refusing to tell me anything about their prosecutions, then refusing to tell me whether they would be opposed and finally refusing to tell me when cases might come to court. My thanks to those who have been kind enough to supply me with information.

So what is happening tomorrow?

The ten unopposed appeals should be quashed tomorrow. Whether they will be or not is in the lap of the Post Office and the courts, but with these cases and all future cases at the Court of Appeal, it seems the Post Office is no longer making a distinction between ground 1 and ground 2 – mainly because there isn’t really a distinction any more. The Court ruled on 23 April that prosecutions in which Horizon data was “essential” were an affront to the conscience of the court, however you wish to phrase it.

What of the other 21 cases?

Of the 18 contested by the Post Office, the Post Office considers that Horizon data was not essential to 15 of those prosecutions, and as of earlier this month had not made a decision on the outstanding three. More, no doubt will be revealed tomorrow.

Of the three DWP cases, I cannot get anything out of the DWP, other than a lengthy Freedom of Information request reply, in which they told me how and why they destroy all data more than six years old in line with good practice.

How, then, I wondered in my last blog post on the issue, were they in a position to oppose the three appeals? I asked the Post Office for more information on that, and got this in return:

“Post Office does not hold case files for prosecutions in which it was not the prosecutor (eg DWP). What we are doing is co-operating fully with third parties in relation to appeals, for example ensuring appropriate disclosure of the limited material we do hold.”

Tomorrow should hopefully throw up some answers. I’ll be live-tweeting from this webpage here (no login needed) if you want it blow-by-blow, and I’ll write up a court report afterwards.

Hudgells: the movie

It is very easy for those who are one or more steps removed from this scandal to forget (or perhaps, never really know) the extent of the suffering at the heart of it.

I have tried to get this across in the work that I have done in the past, highlighting testimony from those who’ve been kind enough to give me interviews for the postofficetrial.com website, on TV and radio, and soon, in the book.

Unfortunately these personal stories, certainly when it comes to the demands of broadcast media, never really get time to breathe in the way I would like them to.

There are two excellent pieces of work available which do give individual stories the time to breathe, both of which I have mentioned before. Anushka Asthana’s superb interview with Janet Skinner over two half-hour Guardian podcast episodes is highly recommmended, as is Deirdre Connolly’s interview for Radio 4’s Digital Human series. Both have other voices providing expert insight, but both productions allow the individual testimony of the people directly and seriously affected by this scandal to shine through.

There is now a third a/v production to add to that list, produced by Hudgell solicitors. It is partly a promo video, of course, but it also puts Subpostmasters’ stories front and centre. It has no voiceover, is beautifully shot, and it really brings home just how much so many people have gone through.

I am sure it will generate more business for Hudgells, but it deserves to – they are the solicitors who appear to be leading the way in getting more convictions quashed. Watch the film here – I cannot recommend it more highly.

Who gave Richard Roll a hug?

I feel a bit embarrassed asking for your help on this, but I am up against it on the book deadline, and I have a feeling the person concerned might be reading this newsletter, or at least known to a secret emailer. Any help anyone can give would be greatly appreciated:

After Richard Roll, the Horizon whistleblower, finished giving evidence at the High Court on 14 March 2019, he went outside for a breather. A claimant Subpostmaster approached Richard to thank him for his willingness to give evidence. They had a little hug. Both were, understandably, quite emotional. Richard didn’t know who the Subpostmaster was. I thought I did, but when I asked the individual I had in mind, they said it wasn’t them!

So – if you hugged Richard Roll outside the Rolls building after he gave evidence, or you know who did, please let me know by just hitting reply to this email and I will follow it up.

Next deadline

After attending court tomorrow, writing up a piece for the blog and sending you another secret email rounding-up the day, I will spend the remainder of the week working on the next phase of the book, which involves reading my editor’s notes, re-writing accordingly and then doing a line-by-line fact-check on everything I’m proposing to submit for legalling, which will bring a new round of adjustments, correspondence etc. The book is aimed at serving three audiences – those directly affected, those with an interest in the story and those who’ve never even heard of the scandal before and just picked the book up on a recommendation. My touchstones in the latter regard are Michael Lewis (“Liars Poker”), Oliver Bullough (“Money Land”) and Private Eye’s Richard Brooks, who wrote the excellent “Bean Counters”, charting the rise of the Big 4 accountancy firms and their talent for missing giant scandals directly under their noses.

My efforts at trying to get the Post Office Horizon Scandal on the record would not have been possible without your support, so thank you. I hope to do the story some kind of justice.

Enjoy the weather – 31 degrees round our way today! The paddling pool is out already.

Yours

Nick