This week we saw the publication of Janet Skinner's story in a podcast by the Guardian and produced on Spotify.  I have to say it is one of the most horrific stories I have heard in this scandal to date.  It must have been very difficult to sit and relive every detail like she did.  I described it on twitter as a disgusting ordeal that Janet was subjected to at the hands of the Post Office, now the nations most untrusted brand as labelled in court.  It is impossible not to be moved by this series.  One of our lawyers in the civil litigation waded in on social media....Kathleen Donnelly said, 'What happened to Janet Skinner at the hands of the Post Office is absolutely outrageous.  This superb production with the heart breaking details in Janet's own words will make you very very angry.  Have a listen yourself below and then if you multiply this hundreds of times, you begin to understand the toll it has taken on people.  It is in two parts each one 30 minutes, let me warn you now, you will be appalled.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/may/10/exposing-the-great-post-office-scandal-part-1

https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/may/11/the-post-office-scandal-part-2

I am pleased to let you all know that the previous podcast series on BBC Sounds by the Whistedown production team (The Great Post Office Trial) made with Nick Wallis and Robert Nicholson has won the VLV award for 2020 (Voice of the Listener & Viewer).  Nick deserves all the kind words he receives for being one of the few people to pursue this story for over 10 years and help expose the Post Office and its brutality.  If you haven't already listened to the series I suggest you set aside some time and have a listen :-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m000jf7j

I mentioned in the last few updates about Nick Wallis' upcoming book release 'The Great Post Office Scandal' and being available for pre-order.  What he has now managed to do is truly amazing.  He has agreed with the book publisher that 10% of all sales revenue (not profit) and pre-orders of the book will go into a fund that will be distributed amongst Sub Postmasters, Post Office workers and their families.  It will be concentrated on those that have failed to be fully compensated for their ordeals.  I don't think any of us can put into words how thankful we are for being able to pull this off.  I am hoping as many people as possible are able to support Nick's work and place an order for the book.  I cannot wait to receive my copy!  Also a percentage of all donations made to his website will also go into the fund he is creating to go towards suffering Postmasters and their families.  The book will be available via Amazon, Waterstones and local bookshops.  If you pre-order it will be shipped by the end of October.  Read below about the 10% of sales :-

https://bathpublishing.com/blogs/what-were-up-to/helping_subpostmasters

Reverend Richard Coles has spoken about the Post Office Scandal many times on social media and he is attempting to hold the government to account by insisting on a full public inquiry.  Karl Flinder's at Computer Weekly managed to interview him for the latest episode.  This is what he had to say -

'The government has announced an inquiry, chaired by a former judge, but it does not have the power to compel witnesses, and the subpostmasters have declined to engage with it. That should in itself be reason enough to upgrade, but it is, of course, not only about justice for the subpostmasters and restitution and compensation – although it is certainly those things – it is also about public trust.  We need to know that everything will be done to mitigate the risk of an appalling scandal like this happening again.  We need to know that when there is a massive miscarriage of justice, what went wrong will be put right.  We need to know that our trust in British justice is not misplaced.

Have a read of the full interview below:-

https://www.computerweekly.com/opinion/Why-the-Post-Office-Horizon-scandal-kept-me-awake-at-night

This morning a further two cases were heard at Southwark Crown Court and the 2 former Postmasters had their convictions overturned taking the total now to 47.  Remember the Court of Appeal currently has over 50 cases pending a hearing, the CCRC another batch and the Post Office is actively trying to contact 540 convicted Sub Postmasters and reviewing another 100 more.  You cannot ever get your head around the scale of this huge injustice.  Teju Adedayo and Parmod Kalia had their convictions overturned in a short hearing.  You would think by now the Post Office would show some empathy towards these innocent people after all that has been exposed, but as you might have come to expect they continue to twist the knife.  Nick Wallis live tweeted proceedings and the Post Office QC went on to say :-

'On the 23rd April in the Court of Appeal the judgment handed down distinguished between ‘Horizon cases’ which, due to the Post Office's failures of investigation and disclosure at the time of the original proceedings, were an abuse of process under both categories.  The court outlined an Horizon case as one where there was no other evidence of a shortfall other than what Horizon showed.  If we apply the test in the Hamilton v Post Office judgment and in particular the guilty pleas made by each appellant, we do not believe the Horizon data was essential to their prosecution.  Neither do we accept these confessions were made as a consequence of anything said or done that was likely, in the circumstances to render them unreliable.  However having considered the High Court judgments, the CCRC’s reasons for referring the case, the judgment in Hamilton & Others v Post Office and the papers available in each individual’s case, POL considered that the Full Code Test in the Code for Crown Prosecutors was not met.  We conclude that a prosecution is not in the public interest and we offer no evidence against these appeals.'

The appellants QC Tom Moloney said that they didn't accept the Post Office argument, however it was 'immaterial' as they were not contesting the appeal and therefore would make no further comment.  The judges said they adopted the findings of the Court of Appeal and these appellants join those whose appeals have not been contested, their sentences have been served and we hope they can put this behind them and get on with their lives without the shadow of their convictions hanging over therm. We therefore allow the appeals. 

This just continues to show the Post Office ultimately has shown no remorse and every so called apology has never really had any meaning.  Why they can't just say we got things terribly wrong, these people are innocent and should never have been prosecuted and we are now doing everything we can to fix the past failings is beyond me!  

Read Nick Wallis' full write up on his site below and the reactions of the two appellants :-

https://www.postofficetrial.com/2021/05/two-more-convictions-quashed-total-now.html