Jo Hamilton was one of the most high-profile victims of the British Post Office Scandal in which she, along with hundreds of other innocent subpostmasters, was wrongly prosecuted for shortfalls caused by faulty accounting software. The scandal is quite rightly considered one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British judicial history – with the Government also very heavily implicated. 

Jo’s treatment at the hands of the Post Office had a devastating impact on, well, her whole world and that of her family. She went on to be a founding member of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance and one of the 555 litigants in the successful group legal action of Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd. Her criminal conviction was overturned in April 2021. If you’ve seen ITV’s remarkable four-part drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, Jo is played by Monica Dolan. 

And so when she heard Jo had written a book, Why Are You Here, Mrs Hamilton?, Mick jumped at the chance to talk to Jo about what happened, how it’s changed her, and what still needs to happen in order for justice to be served. 

Why Are You Here, Mrs Hamilton?: The Post Office Scandal and My Extraordinary Fight for Justice is published by Blink and available from all good bookshops.

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