Thank goodness we have a free press in Britain and in the Western world.
The power of the press has been visible for all to see over the biggest legal scandal that has ever been seen in the UK – the treatment by the Post Office over almost 3,000 of its sub-postmaster and mistress staff. Finally the prime minster has last week pledged in Parliament a speedy resolution to the crisis, promising a new law will be introduced so people wrongly convicted in the scandal are “swiftly exonerated and compensated” – but this has come years too late. The promise is 600,000 pounds plus in compensation.
So little had been done to help those wrongly accused staff over many years – that is until ITV screened a drama/documentary showing what senior staff at the Post Office, the legal profession and a computer company did in covering up defects in a newly installed computer system, called Horizon.
Within hours of the screening Pandora’s Box opened and hey presto, officialdom finally woke up and realised that much more needed to be done to put right the massive injustice to those wrongly accused, wrongly prosecuted and wrongly ordered to pay massive sums which the Post Office claimed was stolen, and which, in fact, wasn’t.
But what was the worst, in my opinion, was wretched senior staff and lawyers pretended, when a sub-postmaster was identified as having a cash shortfall by Horizon, that he or she was the only one having such difficulty and the computer system was OK.
And then, to top it all, it appears that senior Post Office staff were paid bonuses if they secured a successful prosecution. The scandal has gone from bad to worse with every drop of additional news.
Not only were blatant lies being told because staff knew way back that there were many scores of inaccuracies cropping up in post offices around the country, but the lie was compounded by a cover-up over the fact that staff in the computer company could get into the system and alter figures showing in the accounts, even when Post Office staff were working behind their counters. It was denied until a whistle-blower revealed what all were denying.
The Tory government should hang its head in shame that it did not act far sooner to get this appalling injustice rectified. They did nothing while post office staff were dragged through the courts, jailed for theft, ordered to pay massive sums in fines and costs or ordered to pay back small fortunes which pushed them into bankruptcy.
Some had mental breakdowns, some committed suicide, some have died waiting for justice to be done. It’s wrecked marriages, forced people out of their homes and the majority thinking there was nothing that could be done because they were up against the might of the government, big business, top lawyers and courts which believed the State rather than an individual.
Sad they were up against a Tory government which puts the interests of big business, the interests of the super rich first and gives little regard to those on lower rungs. How crass is it that they watched as the Post Office itself carried out prosecutions and gained convictions and did absolutely nothing.
I just cannot imagine what it must have been like for these people who, one day were looked upon as the pillar of their local community and the next accused of stealing thousands of pounds of public money.
My greatest contempt goes to the woman who headed the Post Office at the time, Paula Vennells. She must have known that something was wrong with the new Horizon system, but did nothing. If she didn’t know she was failing in the job, if she did and did nothing and headed the organisation, allowing the persecution of hundreds of post office staff, she should be condemned. I believe that she was doing everything in her power to “protect the good name of the Post office” How often have we heard this – from police, hospitals, schools, etc. etc.
The Tories should be given a severe kicking for recently appointing her as the CEO of an NHS Trust after leaving the Post Office in their policy of creeping privatisation of the NHS.
What’s even worse is that at the time she was a church minister, no doubt preaching from the pulpit about Bible teachings about honesty and integrity. Hypocrisy or what?
It beggars belief that while all this injustice was going on, the Tories gave her an OBE for services to the Post Office would you believe!! Yes, she made a profit while she was there, but then Tories are only interested in money, aren’t they? Finally, long, long, overdue she surrendered her OBE last week.
“Ed Davey did nothing as Postal Affairs minister to halt the avalanche of ruthless criminal proceedings, despite being contacted on numerous occasions by desperate postmasters. Indeed he went on to trouser £275,000 working for the legal firm that fought hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters.”
So, what should happen now?
* Firstly all political parties in the Commons should asap act as one to unanimously vote to repeal all criminal convictions and declare all post office staff innocent and then to award compensation commensurate with the suffering they have endured – and most importantly, paid within weeks, not months or years.
* Secondly action should be taken to end any corporation able to bring its own prosecution. It’s wrong that the Post Office could itself prosecute sub-post office staff without reference to an independent body.
* The police should vigorously investigate any criminal responsibility resting of the shoulders of senior post office staff, their legal advisers and any others involved in the scandal, plus investigate any cover up by Horizon. Wrongdoers should suffer the same punishments as handed out to their victims.
* To put into place, as a matter of urgency, a mechanism to identify any unusual happenings in large institutions, like the Post Office, the NHS, the education system, the police, et. al. Had such a thing been in place it would have identified the unusual deaths in Dr Harold Shipman’s practice in Hyde, and the baby deaths in the hands of a deranged nurse, as other examples.
* The legal profession should take a long, hard look at itself and question whether it’s biased in favour of big business, the rich and powerful and money, rather than providing justice for Mr and Mrs Average.
* Magistrates and judges should question whether they should look longer and harder at prosecutions brought before them and look for anomalies. (I would like readers to look to my subsequent story to see what I am getting at here)
* Much more must be done to protect whistle-blowers and to ensure that information they give is treated seriously and acted upon, and where cover-ups are discovered the full force of the law is brought to bear on them.
* Finally, I would like voters to take a long, hard think about who they vote for at the coming election. The Tories could have done so much to help wrongly-accused Post Office staff over the 14 years they have been in power, but did b***er all until ITV showed the documentary, and only now have they rushed out of the woodwork to attempt damage limitation and by acting now can see some votes from it. More hypocricy methinks!
Thank goodness for a free press. If all this had happened in many other countries of the world, the victims would never have seen justice. I’m going to end this by saying that journalists would make a far, far better job at running the country than any politician!!
I have mentioned above the need for far more robust mechanisms in the justice system, the police, hospitals, schools, etc etc. to identify anything which is out of the ordinary. Here’s what I discovered going wrong in my home town thanks to a rogue copper…
I was only a few years into my career in journalism and covered magistrates’ courts every day. I saw how one young PC in particular would be named in a succession of cases of assaults on police.
At first I thought nothing of it, until my then wife and I were passing this PC who was with a group of teenagers. Interested, as I got closer, and heard him egging the males on, saying, go on, take a punch at me if you think you are man enough, the comments aimed at the youths in front of their girlfriends.
Realising what was happening, I went to this PC and told him that my wife and I had heard what he was saying. I said to him: “You know who I am, I have heard what you are trying to do and I advise you to leave now.” He glared at me, mumbled something and left. The teenage group looked astounded.
Fearing that this police constable was on a one-man mission I discussed the matter with the chief clerk to the magistrates, asking him to examine the number of cases in which this particular police officer was involved in assaults on police. Back came the reply that there were 15 in just three months – much, much higher than any other officer.
Because there are many magistrates covering three courts each day and several assistant clerks, the antics of this rogue copper was not immediately obvious to them.
He said he would discuss my findings with the chief of police. I never saw this copper again and don’t know what happened to him – I hope he was dealt with adequately, because he potentially ruined the lives of teenagers who would have had a difficult time getting a job with an assault on police as a criminal record.
The point I am making here is that there must be robust nationwide systems in place to quickly pinpoint anomalies like this – such a system could have prevented many of the injustices still happening, and in particular what happened in the Post Office.
