Hello secret emailers

This is a note to alert you to a story I’ve been sitting on for a while as the protagonist goes through goodness knows what kind of nightmare.

The Subpostmaster in question is Pete Murray, who up until 1 November 2018 ran two post offices: Hope Farm Road in Great Sutton and Grove Road in Wallasey.

In order to get at least some of Pete’s story in the public domain I have today published (with permission) what he sent me in December last year. You can read it here.

Pete took over the Hope Farm Road Post Office in 2014. It used to be run by Martin Griffiths, the Subpostmaster who very sadly took his own life.

Pete is not a claimant in Bates v Post Office and he is very keen to publicise his situation – if you are a journalist reading this and want to know more, just hit reply.

If you are or if you know someone struggling with the Post Office at the moment, please do get in touch by replying to this email. You can tell your story on this blog.

What’s going on in the litigation?

The Post Office has until 15 March to apply to J Fraser for permission to appeal his Common Issues Trial judgment. If they do a hearing is scheduled for 16 May. Sadly I am otherwise engaged that day but it should be open to the public if you want to go along.

There is also a costs hearing on 23 May during which the Common Issues Trial Judgment costs will be dealt with, and the Claimants’ costs for the Post Office’s recusal application will be awarded on examination of the “detailed assessment” which the judge ordered. Again I can’t be there but I will be hopefully in receipt of the transcript. Again it is open to the public.

The Court of Appeal has been remarkably quiet on the application for permission to appeal the judge’s decision to recuse himself. The Appeal Court can either make this decision on paper or after a hearing. No word on that, but it looks like it isn’t going to be resolved swiftly, which means that J Fraser could resume the Horizon trial on 4 June with the sword of Damocles hanging over him.

But as 4 June is still just over three weeks away, things might change.

Thanks

I remain astounded by and grateful to all the kind souls who have been supporting this project whilst not much has been happening. Thank you – I hope you are finding these occasional emails to your liking. They will ramp up as the trial approaches and gets underway.

Best regards

Nick