A family’s fight

Hi everyone

Apologies for the radio silence. This is the first in what might be a little flurry of newsletters. I’ve been working on multiple Post Office-related projects which are starting to come to fruition.

The piece I mentioned in the last newsletter featuring Wendy Cousins’ family is going out on ITV News at 7pm tonight.

Wendy was a Subpostmaster in the village of Hertford Heath in Hertfordshire. She was accused of stealing £13,000 via giro reintroduction fraud. Her family say that in 2009, because she was terrified of going to prison, she pleaded guilty to theft and confessed to the crime in the hope of mitigation. She was given a nine month suspended sentence.

Wendy joined the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance and was one of the 555 who emerged victorious at the High Court.

You may remember Wendy was one of the Subpostmasters whose appeal was refused on 23 April 2021. She sadly died of cancer last year.

Shortly after Wendy’s appeal was refused I got an email from Paul Cousins (Jr), her son, expressing his outrage and firm belief that his mum had not committed any criminal offence.

Two years later we met and filmed an interview with his dad, Paul Cousins Snr, and Sinead, his sister. It was scheduled to go out last month, but events in the Middle East led to its postponement.

If you only get to read this newsletter after 7pm on Thu 2 November, don’t worry, the piece will go up on the ITV News (or ITVX) website and I will circulate the link in tomorrow’s newsletter.

There will definitely be a newsletter tomorrow because I also have a new podcast episode to tell you about.

For now I just want to thank the Cousins family for trusting me with their story, Lord Arbuthnot and Ed Henry KC for contributing on air (and the many many people who helped with context and research), and ITV News for commissioning the piece. It’s been difficult to put together, but I hope it works on the screen and brings home what some families are still going through.

Thanks

Nick