Investigating the Post Office Scandal

A monster week in the Post Office Scandal - Tony Blair knew the Horizon IT system was a disaster (and ordered his minions to make it not so), the finger-pointing began in earnest, Post Office internal legal advice revealed for the first time, plus interviews with Flora Page and Lee Castleton. This podcast is powered by crowdfunding. If you can spare a dime... https://www.postofficescandal.uk/donate/ 

This is the episode to listen to if you want a 60 second précis of the Post Office Horizon scandal and want to get your head round the re-start to the Inquiry, which begins Phase 2 on Tuesday 11 October. Plus - Rebecca has an exclusive interview with David Enright from Howe and Co, the law firm representing the majority of Subpostmaster participants at the Inquiry. To keep this podcast going through the Inquiry, Nick and Rebecca have also launched a crowdfunding campaign, which you can donate to via the new postofficescandal.uk website. 

In this episode, Nick speaks to Lance Nielsen (writer and co-director with Dickon Tolson) and Suzette Pluck (producer) of False Accounts, a satirical play about the Post Office Horizon scandal. Lance and Suzette talk about the difficulties of putting on a play without funding, choosing which Subpostmasters' stories will be told and naming the characters who will feature, and those who did not quite make the final cut. False Accounts premieres in Birmingham at the Old Joint Stock Theatre on 19 October, and then moves to the Questors Theatre in Ealing, West London on 1 November.

Deirdre Connolly is a former Subpostmaster from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. She was one of the 555 civil litigants who took the Post Office to the High Court and won. In 2010, Deirdre, who had successfully run her Post Office in Killeter without a problem for four years, was told she had a £15,000 discrepancy. She was suspended without pay on the spot. Deirdre was asked by a Post Offie investigator if she was working with the paramilitaries. A whispering campaign began in her local village. Deirdre's mental health fell apart. Her family suffered. She went bankrupt. After nine years of fighting, Deirdre received £11,000 as part of the 2019 High Court settlement fee. She has received nothing since, despite the government making a £19.5m pot of interim compensation available to the 555 in March this year, telling them they'd get their share in 'weeks'. Deirdre tells a good story and she's a great interviewee. The companion piece to this episode - The Compensation Catch - can be found on the Post Office Scandal website, here. Deirdre's witness statement to the Post Office inquiry can be found here. Her oral evidence to Sir Wyn Williams can be seen here.

Tim Brentnall had his conviction quashed last year. Tim was the Postmaster in the tiny village of Roch in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Tim was in his twenties when he was convicted. Nick and Tim talk about the whole experience and Tim's reluctance to join the inquiry, his viral video when he gave his personal statement at the end of his hearing, and what he was doing travelling to the inquiry for a clandestine meeting earlier this week. All very intriguing. After Tim, Nick and Rebecca conduct an internal review of how the podcast is going and whether it's working or not. Then Nick announces he has a speaking gig to talk about his book at his local library. He is very proud.

Lee was there right at the beginning, has seen it all and has campaigned hard every step of the way. How hard is to be a campaigner when you've been sapped of your energy and you have no funds to fight? Lee should be celebrating victory after helping Alan Bates lead 500+ claimants to victory at the High Court in 2019, but the reality is very different. Lee is a great talker and one of the true heroes of the Subpostmasters' campaign. He featured in Rebecca's original Computer Weekly article in 2009, and they are reunited 14 years after they first spoke to talk about the toll the campaign has taken on Lee, his family and the other affected Subpostmasters.

In this episode, John O'Sullivan, the recently elevated joint Subpostmaster of Borough Wash Post Office talks about his life working in his partner's Post Office for more than two decades, his childhood as a Jehovah's Witness and his Irish Rebel family history. John also explains his empathy for victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal and why he is focusing his attention on the NFSP and the Post Office hierarchy. Well worth a listen!

On 11 August there was a huge FOI drop thanks to the tireless efforts of  campaigner Eleanor Shaikh. You can read and/or download that report here, or just listen to barrister Paul Marshall, Rebecca Thomson and Nick Wallis discuss it. Paul also tells us why he wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions outlining his concerns that there has been a Conspiracy to Pervert the Course of Justice at the Post Office.

Rebecca is holiday, but despite this she has helped put together a stunning Sunday Times piece and recorded an interview with Dr Hannah Quirk, a reader in criminal law at Kings College, London. Dr Quirk used to work at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and has an impressive breadth of knowledge on historical miscarriages of justice. She is obviously interested in the Post Office scandal and explains to Rebecca how it fits into other miscarriages of justice in the UK.

Rebecca has been along to the Court of Appeal to witness five more Subpostmasters have their convictions quashed. She spoke to one of them - Richard Hawkes - about his ordeal. Rebecca has also interviewed legal blogger and academic Professor Richard Moorhead from Exeter University who has opened up an entire field of study based on the Post Office Scandal, particularly the legal failings which have been highlighted. Nick, on the other hand, is ill with what sounds like a suspicious dose of man-flue, and so has not contributed much to this episode other than sounding ill and needy.