A year ago today Mr Justice Fraser handed down his final judgment in the Bates v Post Office class action. He then announced he was also sending a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The judgment was a landmark in so many ways. This thread will attempt to explain why...

First of all, the match report.
“They did it” - what it was like to be there:

https://www.postofficetrial.com/2019/12/they-did-it.html

#PostOfficeScandal

Then - the small matter of the file sent to the DPP. This has led to a criminal investigation of two former Fujitsu employees. Latest here:

https://www.postofficetrial.com/2020/11/fujitsu-staff-under-criminal.html

The judgment is a monster, but very readable. Put aside your weekend and have a read:

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2019/3408.html

In fact, if you want to read an article for every day in court (including the recusal application - “Going Postal”), there’s a handy menu here:

https://www.postofficetrial.com/2019/03/horizon-trial-menu.html

But the tl;dr was that Post Office’s Horizon IT system was for most of its existence either not remotely reliable, or not much better. The Post Office criminally prosecuted hundreds of people using Horizon evidence - now the source of the largest single miscarriage of...

… justice in English legal history.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission said the judgments of the Bates v Post Office litigation and especially the Horizon Issues judgment finally provided the evidence needed...

… to refer 47 criminalised Subpostmasters to the Crown Court and Appeal Court to have their convictions quashed.

On Friday last, the six appellants sent to the Crown Court were the first to have their convictions quashed:

https://www.postofficetrial.com/2020/12/first-subpostmaster-convictions-quashed.html

unopposed by the Post...

… Office, who now, many many years too late, agree their prosecution was an abuse of process.

Tomorrow we will be at the Court of Appeal where three of the appellants will be arguing their prosecutions were an affront to the public conscience. Read why this matters...

… here:

https://www.postofficetrial.com/2020/10/court-of-appeal-battle-royale.html

The judgment has also provided some uncomfortable truths for the legal profession. A paper, published today, by the School of Advanced Study at the University of London...

… in the journal Digital Evidence and Electronic Signature Law Review, explains exactly where the law has been going wrong, with regard to computer evidence:

https://journals.sas.ac.uk/deeslr/article/view/5240/5083

… and explains exactly what needs to be done to rectify the problem.

The judgment also led to the Post Office agreeing to reset its relationship with Postmasters, set up two compensation schemes and it forced the government to set up an inquiry chaired by Sir Wyn Williams, which is currently seeking more evidence: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/call-for-evidence-launched-for-post-office-horizon-it-inquiry and...

… it also led to a complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman by the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, who are seeking reparations from the government. The government, btw, owns 100% of the Post Office.
My concern is accountability.

No one has been held responsible for what happened. Since July I have been trying to chase down the specific individuals behind the cover up:

https://www.postofficetrial.com/2020/07/the-post-office-cover-up-part-1-how-and.html and...

… we got a lot closer to understanding just how serious and extensive the cover-up was with the emergence of the existence of the Clarke advice last month:

https://www.postofficetrial.com/2020/12/barrister-quits-over-clarke-advice-order.html

The government doesn’t think anyone should be held accountable for what happened.

This is what happened to some of the victims of this scandal:

https://www.postofficetrial.com/2019/01/victims-testimony.html

I’m not sure that’s a morally defensible position to take.

ENDS