Connect with us

Published

on

A consultant on ITV’s hit drama about the Post Office scandal says “the net may be closing” on those responsible for the wrongful prosecution of subpostmasters after the Metropolitan Police confirmed an investigation is under way.

The police confirmed on Friday that they are investigating the Post Office over potential fraud offences after the wrongful prosecutions and its handling of the Horizon IT scandal.

Former subpostmasters and subpostmistresses were held liable by the Post Office for financial discrepancies thrown up by the computerised accounting system.

The Post Office decision led to more than 700 prosecutions, criminal convictions and, in some cases, prison sentences.

Asked by Sky News if he thought the investigation would lead to criminal prosecutions, Nick Wallis, a consultant on ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, pointed to the lack of charges handed down to those responsible for other national scandals over infected blood, Hillsborough and Windrush.

“So based on our society’s track record of being able to prosecute individuals or corporations, I’m not holding out much hope,” he said.

But he added: “You do get the sense that with this development, with the Met Police coming out saying they’re looking at not just perjury but conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and fraud, the net may well be closing.”

More on Post Office Scandal

This week’s airing of ITV’s mini-series about Alan Bates, the lead claimant, has thrust the scandal back into the public eye and 50 more potential victims are believed to have come forward since it came out.

Mr Bates vs the Post Office. Pic: ITV/Shutterstock
Image:
Actor Toby Jones stars as Alan Bates in Mr Bates vs The Post Office. Pic: ITV/Shutterstock

Mr Wallis, who is also the author of The Great Post Office Scandal, said the reaction to the drama has been “phenomenal”.

“I was speaking to the executive producer last night and apologising for being caught off guard at the response to the drama,” he said.

“She said: ‘We all were.’

“We had no idea that the drama would touch so many people… It hit a nerve with the general public.

“It’s shone a light on this story – something I’ve been working on for more than a decade.

“As a result, more and more victims of this scandal – who perhaps weren’t reached by the journalism that’s been done on it in the past, who perhaps hid themselves away from their communities – now, at last, the word is starting to filter through to them that they will be believed if they come forward and they may well have a case for significant compensation.”

Nick Wallis on Sky News
Image:
Nick Wallis on Sky News

The government announced a new fixed sum payment last year for victims of the scandal, but critics have claimed the payments are not high enough and are taking too long to be distributed.

Mr Wallis said the compensation should have been dealt with by an independent body and that its handling has become “yet another facet” of the scandal.

Read more:
Petition to strip former Post Office boss of CBE
Widower loses appeal to clear wife’s name

Lead claimant Alan Bates (centre) speaking outside the High Court in London, after the first judgment was handed down in claims against the Post Office over its computer system. Picture date: 15 March 2019
Image:
Alan Bates (centre) speaking outside the High Court in London in 2019

‘You can’t put a value’ on scandal’s damage

Christopher Head, a campaigner for victims, became a postmaster at the age of 18 in 2006 and was under criminal investigation himself for six months in 2015 due to the IT scandal.

The Post Office believed he had stolen tens of thousands of pounds due to the IT accounting errors.

He was forced to go through civil proceedings before the case against him was eventually dropped.

Mr Head told Sky News the compensation offered by the Post Office to victims is “not even close” to adequate.

“The amounts of money people have lost… their business, their home, they couldn’t get a job because they had a criminal conviction,” he said.

“Then you put it alongside the stigma and the reputational damage and the distress and those kinds of things.

“You can’t really put a value on it, but the sums I’ve seen being awarded in those schemes do not come in line with what I would call actual legal principle.”

Mr Head said he considers himself lucky compared to those who ended up being criminally prosecuted and jailed.

“You still suffered at the hands of it, but you could never ever put yourselves in the shoes of the people who have been to prison, the people who have taken their own lives and the destruction that’s had on their families,” he said.

“People talk about compensation… and that is an important part of it so people can rebuild their lives, but also they need to see accountability so that they can put this to bed once and for all and move forward.”

Mr Head said he believes there were people at the Post Office who “knew what was going on” and “could have put a stop to it”.

Talking about the Met Police’s investigation, he said: “I think it’s been a long time coming, really.

“We’ve seen a lot of evidence ourselves over the years. I think a few MPs have pointed it out.

“For it to be made official… people are hopeful that somebody somewhere will be held accountable for what’s gone on.”

Continue Reading

UK

Four charged after £7m of damage caused to aircraft at RAF Brize Norton

Published

on

By

Four charged after £7m of damage caused to aircraft at RAF Brize Norton

Four people have been charged after £7m of damage was caused to two Voyager aircraft at RAF Brize Norton.

The investigation into the incident early on Friday 20 June was led by counter-terror police.

They have been charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK – and conspiracy to commit criminal damage.

Two Voyager aircraft at RAF Brize Norton were damaged. PA file pic
Image:
Two Voyager aircraft at RAF Brize Norton were damaged. PA file pic

The four charged have been identified as:

• Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, of no fixed abode

• Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 35, from London

• Jony Cink, 24, of no fixed abode

More from UK

• Lewie Chiaramello, 22, from London

They will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court later today.

Brize Norton

A 41-year-old woman arrested last week on suspicion of assisting an offender has been released on bail until 19 September.

Meanwhile, a 23-year-old man detained on Saturday was released without charge.

Last month’s incident at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire was claimed by the activist group Palestine Action.

Yesterday, MPs voted to proscribe the group as a terrorist organisation.

The legislation passed with 385 MPs voting in favour, while 26 were against.

Continue Reading

UK

No 10 backs Chancellor Rachel Reeves and says she ‘is going nowhere’ after tearful appearance in Commons

Published

on

By

No 10 backs Chancellor Rachel Reeves and says she 'is going nowhere' after tearful appearance in Commons

Rachel Reeves has not offered her resignation and is “going nowhere”, Downing Street has said, following her tearful appearance in the House of Commons.

A Number 10 spokesperson said the chancellor had the “full backing” of Sir Keir Starmer, despite Ms Reeves looking visibly upset during Prime Minister’s Questions.

Politics latest: ‘A moment of intense peril’ for PM

A spokesperson for the chancellor later clarified that Ms Reeves had been affected by a “personal matter” and would be working out of Downing Street this afternoon.

Politics latest: Reeves looks visibly upset in Commons

UK government bond prices fell by the most since October 2022, and the pound tumbled after Ms Reeves’s Commons appearance, while the yield on the 10-year government bond, or gilt, rose as much as 22 basis points at one point to around 4.68%.

Downing Street’s insistence came despite Sir Keir refusing to guarantee that Ms Reeves would stay as chancellor until the next election following the fallout from the government’s recent welfare U-turn.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch branded the chancellor the “human shield” for the prime minister’s “incompetence” just hours after he was forced to perform a humiliating U-turn over his controversial welfare bill.

Emotional Reeves a painful watch – and reminder of tough decisions ahead

It is hard to think of a PMQs like it – it was a painful watch.

The prime minister battled on, his tone assured, even if his actual words were not always convincing.

But it was the chancellor next to him that attracted the most attention.

Rachel Reeves looked visibly upset.

It is hard to know for sure right now what was going on behind the scenes, the reasons – predictable or otherwise – why she appeared to be emotional, but it was noticeable and it was difficult to watch.

To read more of Ali Fortescue’s analysis, click here

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Ms Badenoch said: “This man has forgotten that his welfare bill was there to plug a black hole created by the chancellor. Instead they’re creating new ones.”

Turning to the chancellor, the Tory leader added: “[She] is pointing at me – she looks absolutely miserable.

“Labour MPs are going on the record saying that the chancellor is toast, and the reality is that she is a human shield for his incompetence. In January, he said that she would be in post until the next election. Will she really?”

Not fully answering the question, the prime minister replied: “[Ms Badenoch] certainly won’t.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Welfare vote ‘a blow to the prime minister’

“I have to say, I’m always cheered up when she asks me questions or responds to a statement because she always makes a complete mess of it and shows just how unserious and irrelevant they are.”

Mrs Badenoch interjected: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

The prime minister’s watered-down Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill, aimed at saving £5bn, was backed by a majority of 75 in a tense vote on Tuesday evening.

A total of 49 Labour MPs voted against the bill – the largest rebellion in a prime minister’s first year in office since 47 MPs voted against Tony Blair’s Lone Parent benefit in 1997, according to Professor Phil Cowley from Queen Mary University.

After multiple concessions made due to threats of a Labour rebellion, many MPs questioned what they were voting for as the bill had been severely stripped down.

They ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to Universal Credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

Ms Badenoch said the climbdown was proof that Sir Keir was “too weak to get anything done”.

Read more:
The PM faced down his party on welfare and lost
Labour welfare cuts ‘Dickensian’, says rebel MP

Ms Reeves has also borne a lot of the criticism over the handling of the vote, with some MPs believing that her strict approach to fiscal rules has meant she has approached the ballooning welfare bill from the standpoint of trying to make savings, rather than getting people into work.

Experts have now warned that the welfare U-turn, on top of reversing the cut to winter fuel, means that tax rises in the autumn are more likely – with Ms Reeves now needing to find £5bn to make up for the policy U-turns.

Asked by Ms Badenoch whether he could rule out further tax rises – something Labour promised it would not do on working people in its manifesto – Sir Keir said: “She knows that no prime minister or chancellor ever stands at the despatch box and writes budgets in the future.

“But she talks about growth, for 14 years we had stagnation, and that is what caused the problem.”

Continue Reading

UK

Prosecutors consider more charges against Lucy Letby

Published

on

By

Prosecutors consider more charges against Lucy Letby

Prosecutors are considering whether to bring further criminal charges against Lucy Letby over the deaths of babies at two hospitals where she worked

The Crown Prosecution Service said it had received “a full file of evidence from Cheshire Constabulary asking us to consider further allegations in relation to deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital”.

“We will now carefully consider the evidence to determine whether any further criminal charges should be brought,” it added.

“As always, we will make that decision independently, based on the evidence and in line with our legal test.”

Letby, 35, was found guilty of murdering seven children and attempting to murder seven more between June 2015 and June 2016 while working in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital and is currently serving 15 whole-life orders.

lucy letby
Image:
Letby worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital

She is understood to have carried out two work placements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where she trained as a student, between October and December 2012, and January and February 2015.

Police said in December that Letby was interviewed in prison as part of an investigation into more baby deaths and non-fatal collapses.

A Cheshire Constabulary spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Cheshire Constabulary has submitted a full file of evidence to the CPS for charging advice regarding the ongoing investigation into deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neo-natal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital as part of Operation Hummingbird.”

Detectives previously said the investigation was looking into the full period of time that Letby worked as a nurse, covering the period from 2012 to 2016 and including a review of 4,000 admissions of babies.

Letby’s lawyer Mark McDonald said: “The evidence of the innocence of Lucy Letby is overwhelming,” adding: “We will cross every bridge when we get to it but if Lucy is charged I know we have a whole army of internationally renowned medical experts who will totally undermine the prosecution’s unfounded allegations.”

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Three managers at the hospital where Lucy Letby worked have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

On Tuesday, it was confirmed that three managers at the Countess of Chester hospital had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in a separate investigation.

Read more from Sky News:
‘Catastrophic failure’ that led to Heathrow power outage revealed
Man charged with murder of 93-year-old woman in Cornwall

Police said the suspects, who occupied senior positions at the hospital between 2015 and 2016, have all been bailed pending further inquiries.

There is also an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the hospital, which began in October 2023.

A public inquiry has also been examining the hospital’s response to concerns raised about Letby before her arrest.

In May, it was announced the inquiry’s final report into how the former nurse was able to commit her crimes will now be published early next year.

Earlier this year, Letby’s lawyers called for the suspension of the inquiry, claiming there was “overwhelming and compelling evidence” that her convictions were unsafe.

In February, an international panel of neonatologists and paediatric specialists told reporters that poor medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the collapses and deaths.

Their evidence has been passed to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, and Letby’s legal team hopes her case will be referred back to the Court of Appeal.

Continue Reading

Trending