Rank injustice

Good afternoon

There are some people affected by this story who mean a lot to me. Teju Adedayo is one of them. I met her during the group litigation in 2018. Her unfailing good humour and certainty that the truth would come out over the course of legal proceedings was something to witness.

Teju is now in something of a bind. She had her criminal conviction quashed in 2021, yet she has been unable to get the compensation she feels she is due. This is because the Post Office says she is a “public interest” case.

I’ve always considered this categorisation to be fundamentally unfair, but earlier this month, in Teju’s case, it was exposed as a false premise.

To understand more, please do have a look at my new blog post: The Post Office vs Teju Adedayo.

I am extremely grateful to the legal eagle (and secret emailer) who provided me with the impetus to write the piece.

Last Friday’s evidence

The evidence given to the Public Inquiry by former Post Office investigator Diane Matthews was apparently yet another car crash. Diane’s “investigations” did for Janet Skinner and Noel Thomas, two of the most egregious miscarriages of justice in this whole affair (which is saying something).

I have not yet watched it through, but the Law Society Gazette has covered it.

I do wonder if the evidence we are now seeing come out of the Inquiry will force the Courts to change their tune on the reliability of all Post Office prosecutions, not just ones where the appellants can satisfy their Lordships of Horizon’s essentiality to a case.

Horizon Scandal Fund disbursements

I am delighted we have finally been able to put on the record some anonymised examples of the Horizon Scandal Fund’s activities. I can only apologise for the delay. Something like this takes about five minutes to read, but a huge amount of time to put together.

I am deeply grateful to the grant recipients who kindly agreed to tell us a little bit about why they contacted the Fund and their experience of doing so.

I hope we can use this release to persuade more people to come forward to apply for a grant, and hopefully also raise some money.

Please have a look at the post on the Horizon Scandal Fund website and do share it into your networks. I know many people reading this have made donations. We are all deeply, deeply grateful to you for doing so.

One more live date

Another live date for my “Post Office Scandal – The Inside Story” talk has gone on sale. I’m going to be doing an afternoon talk (very civilised) at the Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis in Dorset on Saturday 23 March. If you live down that way, please do come along. It would be lovely to see you.

Welcome and thanks

Hello and welcome to all our new secret emailers and thanks to everyone for all the recent correspondence, whether it’s about Post Office-related matters or not.

I’m sorry I can’t respond to everyone, nor can I pick up on every single item of interest at the Inquiry. Each blog post is, on average, about four hours work. The recent BBC Radio 4 series was a month’s work for 1hr 15 mins of broadcast audio. The recent four-minute ITV News piece took five days to put together.

I wish I could be a full time Post Office correspondent, but I can’t. I will do stuff where I can, though, and I really do think Teju and the other “public interest” (I hate that assignation) cases are very serious and worth highlighting. So please, if you get a moment, do have a quick read about her case.

Please do keep your messages coming. I do read and appreciate every one. And all our communication is kept in the strictest confidence.

Festive greetings

They say Christmas is getting earlier every year. On Friday I did a piece for ITV News (which doesn’t seem to have surfaced online) about Christmas trees going on sale in November, and tonight I am attending my book club’s Christmas party. I don’t think the Christmas season should start till December, but I’m beginning to think if you can’t beat ’em….

Ho ho ho,

Nick