Post Office scandal

Lord Potts said:
The public enquiry and Channel 4 News have unearthed a considerable amount of damming evidence. The emails and recoded conversations that they have uncovered (and published) suggests a consipracy among senior executives within the Poste Office. The law makes no allowance for those involved who think all they were involved in was just a bit of a "cover up" to save the Post Office embarrassment.This is therefore not simply a case of a bureaucratic system has failing a no one is really to blame its a question of people in positions of responsibility wilfully misusing their power.

Lord Arbuthnot who gave his evidence to the enquiry this week and for a number of years has played a pivitol role in getting justice for the sub-postmasters has publically accused the Post Office of conspiracy. His opinion is based on several years of having meetings & correspondence with Post Office executives involved this case and being a wittness to their organised deceptions. He was also practicing Barrister for many years so I believe that his opinion is fairly well informed.

Only the police can actually charge anyone with any offence in this case and they are proposing not to do anything until the end of the public enquiry. They are however under increasing pressure from a number of quarters to take action now. Its is very likely that they are at least already paying very close attention to what is being said at the public enquiry and evaluating what charges can be made.
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The Met are one of the core participants in the inquiry, so will be paying very close attention. They've already interviewed a couple of Fujitsu staff that I'm aware of but I think they might now be holding off until the inquiry has heard all its evidence from witnesses before proceeding any further.
 


HellsBells said:
From a time when Tories were just decent people with different opinions rather than corrupt incompetent arseholes.
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might not have agreed with them but in days of yore at least they had basis for their opinions, appeared to believe in them and not just in it for the money/career.
for balance i think it's the same for the whole lot of them.
 
Beau Tye said:
The Met are one of the core participants in the inquiry, so will be paying very close attention. They've already interviewed a couple of Fujitsu staff that I'm aware of but I think they might now be holding off until the inquiry has heard all its evidence from witnesses before proceeding any further.
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Is that the same met as during lockdowns stood outside 10 DS while the parties were in full flow every night?
 
ERIMUS1876 said:
Ah yes, Stephen Bradshaw. Totally devoid of any moral responsibility or integrity, but he has one thing in abundance and that's arrogance. A bully who played the victim when giving his "evidence" (I use the term lightly) and didn't care about the many lives he had ruined.

I have little doubt that when Alan Bates referred to "thugs in suits" during his own evidence, he had Bradshaw and his cohorts at the front of his thoughts.

Employed by the Post Office for over 20 years and STILL there! That tells you all you need to know.

It will be interesting to see if the police investigate further the possibility that any of those called to the public enquiry gave false evidence under oath and/or knowingly signed false witness statements because both are serious criminal offences if they are found to have taken place.
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top post, just got an awful feeling Bradshaw is too far down pecking order- love to see him do a stretch though.
 
MSC said:
Is that the same met as during lockdowns stood outside 10 DS while the parties were in full flow every night?
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It is! I must admit I have zero faith in the met to carry out any sort of investigation (along with every other police service in the country) but, at the time of posting, I didn't want to bring my feelings into, just the facts.
 
Lord Potts said:
The public enquiry and Channel 4 News have unearthed a considerable amount of damming evidence. The emails and recoded conversations that they have uncovered (and published) suggests a consipracy among senior executives within the Poste Office. The law makes no allowance for those involved who think all they were involved in was just a bit of a "cover up" to save the Post Office embarrassment.This is therefore not simply a case of a bureaucratic system has failing a no one is really to blame its a question of people in positions of responsibility wilfully misusing their power.

Lord Arbuthnot who gave his evidence to the enquiry this week and for a number of years has played a pivitol role in getting justice for the sub-postmasters has publically accused the Post Office of conspiracy. His opinion is based on several years of having meetings & correspondence with Post Office executives involved this case and being a wittness to their organised deceptions. He was also practicing Barrister for many years so I believe that his opinion is fairly well informed.

Only the police can actually charge anyone with any offence in this case and they are proposing not to do anything until the end of the public enquiry. They are however under increasing pressure from a number of quarters to take action now. Its is very likely that they are at least already paying very close attention to what is being said at the public enquiry and evaluating what charges can be made.
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totally agree that it is not a system failure of decisions. some people will have made deliberate attempts to cover this up. However at this stage it is unclear who.

However since the inquiry has the statements and some of the documentation, the inquiry team, will have a damn good idea where they are going and with their questioning they will be leading people along a route they want to go.

I have not heard or read the covert recordings and that would be an interesting read, which is a further pointer that really we must leave the accusations of involvement to the inquiry team.

Sir Win is no fool and I have noticed a couple of times his interventions are interesting and shows he is on the ball.

Bearing in mind I only pop in and out of this, I obviously miss a lot, so my suppositions are just that, suppositions and I would like to wait and see what else is to come out.

One thing I can make an educated guess at, is that there are going to be a few big bangs, when the legal team decide to drop them. Everybody is just being led along their merry way. Wait until the challenge stage.
 
Just came across the Stephen Dilley evidence to the enquiry on YT. That was back on last September before I started watching.
He was the main solicitor employed by the PO in their prosecution of Castleton.
Came a cross as a nasty arrogant bully who had no regrets at all.
Castleton , wife and daughter were all present and sat facing him , the daughters witness statement was read to Dilley , Heartbreaking to hear , he sat stone faced , never flinched.
Asked at the outset by inquiry counsel Julian Blake whether he had anything to say to Castleton and his family, Dilley replied: ‘No I don’t think so.’
Will people like him get off scot-free ?
He was rewarded with a full partnership after the conviction ? Is there nothing in the solicitors code to prevent this type of bullying on behalf of corporate clients ?
Daughters statement to the enquiry :

“I must have been 8 when I first took note the confusion, frustration and anxiety that was leeching into my home. This was before talks of court, trials and accusations of theft. This was the period that my father started noticing the IT faults that wouldn’t be taken seriously for so many years. In the years running up to my father’s trial in 2006 I vividly recall sitting on the staircase late at night, listening to conversations I barely understood or could really comprehend. To a child, the answer always seemed obvious, my father hadn’t done anything. Why didn’t people believe him? Why is the dining room table covered in papers as well as the back office of the post office, and why is he always down there late at night making phone calls and faxes?..

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Millie Castleton
“This was an ordeal that not only cost my father legal fees, this was an event that blackened our name and branded us all with something that was unjustified. Court ruling, local gossip and unyielding arguments from the post office would lead to my whole family being branded as thieves and liars. It’s deeply sickening to look back to my life in that small town. A place that would in time, fill me with anxiety to walk through. How comfortable can anyone be when people spat at you based on what you know is a lie? It was also a lonely time, the financial strain of legal fees and supporting the family saw my dad working near 100-hour weeks, often involving traveling and spending days on end away from us. He became a stranger to me, someone I barely saw and lost close relationship with. My mother worked too during the day, upholding the newsagents we still had, which was failing due to the label attached to us and it after the legal case.

“I remember feeling cold and terrified when a child on the bus in my first week asked, ‘didn’t your dad steal loads of money or something?’ This set me on edge for a long time, causing me to become that ever so anxious child who regularly was the subject of bullying. After a few incidents of supposed friends treating me poorly, I completely disconnected.

“At home I was dealing with parents who were working their hardest to provide, utterly pained by the stress that the post office trial caused them. Dad was working insane hours as well as beginning to work with others to try and solve the many emerging cases of other sub-postmasters and post-mistresses like him. My mother was also working as much as she could but also dealing with a stress- induced epilepsy. She lost her driving licence as a result and had to take medication. These seizures where unpredictable at first when the medication was still new. I remember having to handle her seizures alone as a child, sometimes in the middle of the night.

“I didn’t tell my parents about the bullying or social withdrawal. They didn’t know I spent my breaks sitting alone or just walking around, they didn’t know I could go a day or two without really talking. They didn’t know that I was assaulted on the school bus and had to run off on the first stop, wet from water being thrown at me, being spat on and having been hit by paper balls. In my mind this was an additional stressor they didn’t need. I could deal with it alone and not put more weight on their load. I just felt like such a burden all the time.

“My late teens and early twenties were governed by my eating disorder and mental anxieties. I began to sink under the weight of it all and subsequent grabbed for some sense of control. I was anxious about going to university and leaving my family. Mum was still having seizures and Dad was still fighting a legal battle, I felt guilty. Leaving and not being able to help more. I left, already dealing with an undiagnosed at the time eating disorder. It began in my GCSE year, just eating less bit by bit and skipping out on the canteen and pack lunches to avoid questions. By this point I was visibly skinny. Living alone however gave way to me being vulnerable to all my demons… By the end of my first year of university I had been diagnosed as anorexic and too sick to go to my second year… My lowest weight saw me weighing little more than 5-stone and having to stay in hospital for heart related issues for days on end. I’d be lying if I claimed that this wasn’t a cry for help. The surrender of a broken spirit, the pain and self-loathing if someone who just couldn’t escape a terrible situation. Every part of my late childhood and teens was absolutely tainted by the post office case.

“But I fought. I tried. I’m better for it. Not perfect but better, part of me will always feel a little broken-up. I still feel a burning fear at spending larger sums of money or doing something purely for myself. That nagging voice in my head still says ugly things sometimes. It still tells me that my past and family’s struggle will define me, that it will be a branding on my skin forever. Broken, thief or liar.”
 
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ontap said:
Just came across the Stephen Dilley evidence to the enquiry on YT. That was back on last September before I started watching.
He was the main solicitor employed by the PO in their prosecution of Castleton.
Came a cross as a nasty arrogant bully who had no regrets at all.
Castleton , wife and daughter were all present and sat facing him , the daughters witness statement was read to Dilley , Heartbreaking to hear , he sat stone faced , never flinched.
Asked at the outset by inquiry counsel Julian Blake whether he had anything to say to Castleton and his family, Dilley replied: ‘No I don’t think so.’
Will people like him get off scot-free ?
He was rewarded with a full partnership after the conviction ? Is there nothing in the solicitors code to prevent this type of bullying on behalf of corporate clients ?
Daughters statement to the enquiry :

“I must have been 8 when I first took note the confusion, frustration and anxiety that was leeching into my home. This was before talks of court, trials and accusations of theft. This was the period that my father started noticing the IT faults that wouldn’t be taken seriously for so many years. In the years running up to my father’s trial in 2006 I vividly recall sitting on the staircase late at night, listening to conversations I barely understood or could really comprehend. To a child, the answer always seemed obvious, my father hadn’t done anything. Why didn’t people believe him? Why is the dining room table covered in papers as well as the back office of the post office, and why is he always down there late at night making phone calls and faxes?..

Logon or register to see this image
Millie Castleton
“This was an ordeal that not only cost my father legal fees, this was an event that blackened our name and branded us all with something that was unjustified. Court ruling, local gossip and unyielding arguments from the post office would lead to my whole family being branded as thieves and liars. It’s deeply sickening to look back to my life in that small town. A place that would in time, fill me with anxiety to walk through. How comfortable can anyone be when people spat at you based on what you know is a lie? It was also a lonely time, the financial strain of legal fees and supporting the family saw my dad working near 100-hour weeks, often involving traveling and spending days on end away from us. He became a stranger to me, someone I barely saw and lost close relationship with. My mother worked too during the day, upholding the newsagents we still had, which was failing due to the label attached to us and it after the legal case.

“I remember feeling cold and terrified when a child on the bus in my first week asked, ‘didn’t your dad steal loads of money or something?’ This set me on edge for a long time, causing me to become that ever so anxious child who regularly was the subject of bullying. After a few incidents of supposed friends treating me poorly, I completely disconnected.

“At home I was dealing with parents who were working their hardest to provide, utterly pained by the stress that the post office trial caused them. Dad was working insane hours as well as beginning to work with others to try and solve the many emerging cases of other sub-postmasters and post-mistresses like him. My mother was also working as much as she could but also dealing with a stress- induced epilepsy. She lost her driving licence as a result and had to take medication. These seizures where unpredictable at first when the medication was still new. I remember having to handle her seizures alone as a child, sometimes in the middle of the night.

“I didn’t tell my parents about the bullying or social withdrawal. They didn’t know I spent my breaks sitting alone or just walking around, they didn’t know I could go a day or two without really talking. They didn’t know that I was assaulted on the school bus and had to run off on the first stop, wet from water being thrown at me, being spat on and having been hit by paper balls. In my mind this was an additional stressor they didn’t need. I could deal with it alone and not put more weight on their load. I just felt like such a burden all the time.

“My late teens and early twenties were governed by my eating disorder and mental anxieties. I began to sink under the weight of it all and subsequent grabbed for some sense of control. I was anxious about going to university and leaving my family. Mum was still having seizures and Dad was still fighting a legal battle, I felt guilty. Leaving and not being able to help more. I left, already dealing with an undiagnosed at the time eating disorder. It began in my GCSE year, just eating less bit by bit and skipping out on the canteen and pack lunches to avoid questions. By this point I was visibly skinny. Living alone however gave way to me being vulnerable to all my demons… By the end of my first year of university I had been diagnosed as anorexic and too sick to go to my second year… My lowest weight saw me weighing little more than 5-stone and having to stay in hospital for heart related issues for days on end. I’d be lying if I claimed that this wasn’t a cry for help. The surrender of a broken spirit, the pain and self-loathing if someone who just couldn’t escape a terrible situation. Every part of my late childhood and teens was absolutely tainted by the post office case.

“But I fought. I tried. I’m better for it. Not perfect but better, part of me will always feel a little broken-up. I still feel a burning fear at spending larger sums of money or doing something purely for myself. That nagging voice in my head still says ugly things sometimes. It still tells me that my past and family’s struggle will define me, that it will be a branding on my skin forever. Broken, thief or liar.”
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I think the bar are waiting for the inquiry to end before their next steps. Alan Bates has said if no action is taken he'll take out private prosecutions, just like the Post Office did. I'd happily donate to his crowdfunding if he did.
 
I have only watched small parts of the inquiry, but the legal counsels I have seen have been doing an excellent job of using the evidence and exposing the senior people at the post office.

These people really deserve to be punished for their actions and something needs doing when the inquiry is complete.
 
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