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Largest ever miscarriage of justice?

Some good news at last.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68548438

A new law will be introduced on Wednesday to clear the names of the hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly convicted in the Post Office scandal.

The legislation is expected to clear the majority of victims in England and Wales by the end of July.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it is "an important step forward in finally clearing" hundreds of sub-postmasters.

People who were not convicted but made up shortfalls from their own pockets will get £75,000.

As announced in September, sub-postmasters who were wrongly convicted will get an option to settle for £600,000, without the need to bring a formal claim.
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I hope the move to get compensation for the children of the falsely accused gets traction. MOJs affect families, not just the accused.

I would like to see the PO take out a loan for billions to pay compensation, that can take decades, even a century to pay back.
 
Darat said:
Most frustrating for the government - publish it on PMQ day to gain favourable headlines and then you get a 10 million pound dead fish tied to your neck.
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It looks like it's actually a £15M dead fish now.

I'm still uneasy about this. I'd prefer the Home Secretary to immediately pardon those who were convicted using Horizon evidence and then set up a special court to quickly quash the convictions. But keeping parliament out of the courts.
 
It turns out that in 2011, a legal requirement to disclose evidence, including exculpatory evidence, came into force in Scotland. It is under S164 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scot) Act of 2010 and was signed off as a Code of Practice by the then Lord Advocate.

https://www.copfs.gov.uk/publicatio...sclosure-of-evidence-in-criminal-proceedings/

Part of the new requirement, was to train Reviewing Officers, whose job it is to make sure any report to COPFS complies with disclosure rules. You would think that COPFS would instruct the Post Office to comply with the new law in regards to all reports to them for prosecution, or the Post Office to make sure they were up to date with new legislation.

Turns out, neither happened.

https://twitter.com/RogerthePolice/status/1771571123106238957

So, instead of COPFS putting pressure on the PO to provide a legal guarantee of full disclosure with a Reviewing Officer in 2011, COPFS waited till 2015 before they demanded expert evidence on Horizon's reliability. That was when the PO backed down and prosecutions stopped. It looks like they could have been stopped in 2011.
 
Nessie said:
It turns out that in 2011, a legal requirement to disclose evidence, including exculpatory evidence, came into force in Scotland. It is under S164 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scot) Act of 2010 and was signed off as a Code of Practice by the then Lord Advocate.

https://www.copfs.gov.uk/publicatio...sclosure-of-evidence-in-criminal-proceedings/

Part of the new requirement, was to train Reviewing Officers, whose job it is to make sure any report to COPFS complies with disclosure rules. You would think that COPFS would instruct the Post Office to comply with the new law in regards to all reports to them for prosecution, or the Post Office to make sure they were up to date with new legislation.

Turns out, neither happened.

https://twitter.com/RogerthePolice/status/1771571123106238957

So, instead of COPFS putting pressure on the PO to provide a legal guarantee of full disclosure with a Reviewing Officer in 2011, COPFS waited till 2015 before they demanded expert evidence on Horizon's reliability. That was when the PO backed down and prosecutions stopped. It looks like they could have been stopped in 2011.
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Wouldn't that come under "perverting the course of justice", or is there a distinction between a positive requirement and a negative prohibition?
 
sphenisc said:
Wouldn't that come under "perverting the course of justice", or is there a distinction between a positive requirement and a negative prohibition?
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I think it should, but COPFS are as to blame, if not more so, than the Post Office, and they are not going to prosecute themselves.
 
The emotional impact of the Post Office scandal has a long reach, Lord Arbuthnot, who as an MP was one of the first to campaign on behalf of the sub-postmasters, is played evidence that the PO knew Horizon was faulty;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/n...nal-damning-Post-Office-Scandal-evidence.html

"Lord Arbuthnot breaks down in tears when shown the evidence. He said: 'I've been doing this for 14, 15 years now and to think that a British institution could behave like this, owned by us, is just terrible.' "
 
Nessie said:
Ofsted and the PO are also related, due to the attitude of at least some of the people employed to inspect, investigate. They like being able to rock up unannounced and instil terror into the people they are visiting. Jobs that carry power to totally ruin other people's lives sadly seem to attract people who like to ruin other people's lives.
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THat is one hell of a broad statement and if true, how do you solve the problem?
SHort of some system of anarchy, whichis impossible anyway.
 
Nessie said:
Ofsted and the PO are also related, due to the attitude of at least some of the people employed to inspect, investigate. They like being able to rock up unannounced and instil terror into the people they are visiting. Jobs that carry power to totally ruin other people's lives sadly seem to attract people who like to ruin other people's lives.
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"To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem." - Douglas Adams.
 
The evidence of a failure to disclose evidence is overwhelming. I hope the Post Office lawyers and managers who knew and failed to ensure evidence of Horizon faults were disclosed, now face years of uncertainty leading to convictions, loss of houses, friends, respect, everything the sub-postmasters lost.
 
https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/post-office-paula-vennells-scandal-recording-b2520561.html

A secret recording from 2013 reveals Post Office boss Paula Vennells was warned not to cover up faults with the Horizon IT system as subpostmasters were being wrongly convicted.
In audio obtained by ITV News, independent investigators from Second Sight held a meeting with Ms Vennells, making her aware of allegations that subpostmaster branch accounts could be accessed remotely - which the Post Office denied for years.​

One presumes we will hear of her arrest tomorrow?
 
She's a posh vicar, she'll have received an invite to turn up to a police station at her leisure, when she deserves to have had her door kicked down by a platoon in riot gear at four o'clock in the morning
 
Filippo Lippi said:
She's a posh vicar, she'll have received an invite to turn up to a police station at her leisure, when she deserves to have had her door kicked down by a platoon in riot gear at four o'clock in the morning
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There’s a line in Blackadder 3 about an angry mob and a portable gallows that is pertinent here.
 
malbui said:
There’s a line in Blackadder 3 about an angry mob and a portable gallows that is pertinent here.
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.....meet me back here at midnight, with ten soldiers, a restless lynch mob and a small, portable gallows!
 
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