Well what a day of revelations yesterday in the Court of Appeal! Just after my blog where I said just when you think you cannot be possibly be shocked with this scandal along comes another explosive revelation.
Post Office Ltd told staff to shred, yes DESTROY documents and minutes of meetings where they were discussing errors and defects in the Horizon system. They also told staff to stop taking further minutes of meetings because if it is not documented it doesn't come into the public domain and does not need to be disclosed to courts. Well this is a new almighty bombshell! I thought Post Office said it had changed its ways and now being fully transparent, it would seem that is not the case. This is nothing short of deliberate criminal actions and they were even warned by the Clark Advice from their own solicitors that doing these things could amount to perverting the course of justice, of course they went ahead and did it anyway!
Here is the revelation in the Court of Appeal yesterday :-
'Clarke wrote: “The minutes of a previous conference call had been typed and emailed to a number of persons. An instruction was then given that those emails and minutes should be, and have been, destroyed: the word ‘shredded’ was conveyed to me.'
He also wrote that instruction was given that handwritten minutes were not to be typed and should be forwarded to the Post Office head of security. 'Advice had been given to [Post Office] which I report as relayed to me verbatim: ‘If it’s not minuted it’s not in the public domain and therefore not disclosable’,'he wrote,
'Such a decision, where it is taken partly or wholly in order to avoid future disclosure obligations, may well amount to a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice on the part of those both taking such a decision, and those who implement such a decision where they do so in the knowledge that it was taken partly or wholly for that purpose,' Clarke added.
Sam Stein QC representing 5 Sub Postmasters went on to say that the order to send all hand written minutes to Post Office head of security was hardly 'just for safe-keeping'!.
Mr Stein also said:
'what we have is a disclosure system set up and we see the Post Office reaction to it is one of dishonesty and destruction and shredding of documents, and you cannot see this any other way.'
Post Office brand, trust and future is literally shredded to pieces! Would you ever want to buy a product from them that you had to trust they would honour in the future, I highly doubt it!
This now fully strengthens my argument that the current whitewash inquiry simply does not go far enough. Someone ordered the destruction of these documents, someone was willing to go ahead and do it....what we don't yet know is who these people are. The other big question is who attended these meetings where these ideas were suggested.......did Paula Vennells attend, did the government shareholder Tom Cooper or other parties at UKGI (UK Government and Investments). Is this the real reason the government at present will not give us the full statutory inquiry with terms of reference to compel those in senior positions to give evidence under oath and allow some form of accountability. The pressure for this type of inquiry must continue because if the Post Office and Government are to re-build trust with current and former Postmasters then there has to be 100% transparency and if there is nothing to hide then they will go ahead and do it. I have updated my letters to Paul Scully MP, Kwasi Kwarteng MP and Boris Johnson, demanding further action after yesterdays bombshells.
Yesterday I was invited to do a radio interview with LBC radio with Eddie Mair right in a prime time news slot at 17:35 pm. I tried to get as much information into the interview as possible to push hard on all the points on behalf of all victims in this scandal. The feedback I received after the interview was very positive.
Tim McCormack wrote :- 'You are a great spokesperson for the group Chris, you come across really well.'
Nick Wallis replied :- 'Great setup audio and wonderful interview. Chris is a brilliant campaigner. Really powerful stuff. Prosecuted by the Post Office despite no evidence, dropped when he resisted.
Many other who took the time to respond and I thank them all for that. My response was that I will do whatever it takes to help deliver justice for everyone involved.
I uttered similar words to that of Rishi Sunak 'We will do whatever it takes, no one will be left behind'. We cannot and will not accept it is over until everyone is delivered compensation, justice and accountability for their case.
The problem there is with Sunak's speech, some people were left behind, we will make sure that we do not make those mistakes.
You can have a listen below for the next 6 days :-
https://www.globalplayer.com/catchup/lbc/uk/b8FPjCj/
Click on Monday 22nd March 2021 then fast forward to 01:37:33 which is one hour and 37 minutes into the show from the 4pm start.
Surely there cannot be more revelations to come in the days ahead.....or can there???!