Post Office scandal: Hero Alan Bates to give evidence as inquiry resumes
The UK Post Office Horizon Public Inquiry resumes this week almost four years after it began.
Public and political interest in the industrial-scale miscarriage of justice suffered by sub-postmasters was transformed by a television drama.
Since 2020 retired judge Sir Wyn Williams has been probing the circumstances that led the Post Office to prosecute more than 900 sub-postmasters for theft, fraud and false accounting caused not by dishonesty, but errors in the Horizon software it required them to use, since 2020.
This necessarily painstaking process has been conducted in public throughout, with dozens of evidence sessions aired live on YouTube, with transcription and hundreds of documents available in full online.
Only since Christmas, and the airing of ITV’s Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which measured this long and complex scandal by the human cost to those wrongly convicted, has it gained traction in Westminster and the media.
The penultimate phase of the inquiry will begin, fittingly, with a full day of evidence from the eponymous hero of that drama Alan Bates, the indefatigable sub-postmaster who led a group litigation against the Post Office in 2017.
His evidence will set the context for appearances by senior executives of the Post Office and Fujitsu, which built the Horizon software, and politicians who took key decisions during more than a decade of malfunction and alleged manipulation of the system.
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Post Office told Fujitsu to change sub-postmasters’ accounts, leaked recordings suggest
Former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells will face questions for three days in May, and former Royal Mail Group chief executive Adam Crozier will appear at the end of this week.
Politicians including Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey and Labour campaign director Pat McFadden will also be in the chair to answer for their actions as Post Office ministers.
A key question for all of them will be what they knew of the problems with the Horizon system and when.
In 2019, the group litigation led the High Court to rule that the software contained “bugs, errors and defects” that could have caused the shortfalls on which the Post Office based its convictions.
The evidence that Post Office officials knew their system and therefore their prosecutions were flawed has mounted even since the ITV drama.
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Post Office scandal explained
A 2017 report by Deloitte, published by the inquiry last month, found examples of branch balances being changed remotely to order, something the Post Office had long insisted could not be done.
Last week, Sky News revealed audio recordings of phone calls between independent investigators and Post Office executives in 2013, in which allegations of remote tempering of branch accounts by their Fujitsu counterparts were discussed.
Ms Vennells and her former colleagues will also have to answer for their role in directing the Post Office to continue prosecutions even after being alerted to these flaws, and to commit millions in legal costs to try and outspend sub-postmasters who fought back.
On Ms Vennell’s watch, the Post Office settled the group litigation for £58m, of which £47m was swallowed in legal costs, leaving 555 sub-postmasters, some of whom were wrongly jailed, to share just £11m, less than £20,000 each.
Sir Wyn Williams has committed to producing recommendations as soon as possible after the inquiry concludes in September, but the drama has already prompted the government to address some of the biggest issues.
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‘We’ve got to get money out to the victims’
Legislation has been tabled that will at a stroke exonerate all prosecuted sub-postmasters who meet certain conditions, a move that has disturbed some in the judiciary and ministers admit carries the risk of clearing those guilty of crimes.
The aim is to make all sub-postmasters eligible for compensation, which requires convictions to have been overturned, but even that process is mired in controversy.
There are three separate schemes, all run by the Post Office.
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A parliamentary select committee in February heard evidence from lawyers for the victims that they are slow, overly bureaucratic and could even now take up to two years to deliver financial redress.
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That same hearing also exposed chronic dysfunction among the current Post Office management, with chief executive Nick Read revealed to be under investigation for alleged bullying of a former HR director, and allegations of a smear campaign against the former chairman Henry Staunton.
There is more than enough material in this sorry, squalid corporate scandal for a made-for-TV sequel.
Alan Bates and his peers will settle for redress and real world recriminations, including potential criminal prosecutions, for those responsible.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the ship collision in the North Sea.
Humberside Police said the 59-year-old is in custody to allow enquiries to take place, and officers are talking to those involved to find out what happened.
The force added investigators have started a criminal probe into the cause of the collision between the Stena Immaculate and Solong off the coast of East Yorkshire on Monday, and are working with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
Ernst Russ, the owner of Solong, later confirmed the man detained was the ship’s captain. The shipping firm called him “the master of the ship” – which is understood to be the same as a captain.
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Sky News above North Sea ship collision
One person remains missing and is presumed dead after emergency services stopped their search on Monday evening.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch is also involved in early work to determine what caused the two vessels to collide.
Read more: What we know about the collision
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Map shows moment of collision in North Sea
Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Superintendent Craig Nicholson, said: “Humberside Police have taken primacy for the investigation of any potential criminal offences which arise from the collision between the two vessels.
“Extensive work has already been carried out, and we are working closely with our partners to understand what happened, and to provide support to all of those affected.
“Following enquiries undertaken by my team, we have arrested a 59-year-old man on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the collision, this follows the conclusion of search operations by HM Coastguard for the missing crew member of the SOLONG.”
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North Sea: Sailor presumed dead
He added: “Our thoughts are with the family of the missing crew member, and I have appointed family liaison officers to make contact and provide support to the family.
“The man arrested remains in custody at this time whilst enquiries are under way, and we continue speaking with all those involved to establish the full circumstances of the incident.”
Ernst Russ added in a later statement that it could confirm the master of the Solong “has been detained by Humberside Police in the UK”.
“The master and our entire team are actively assisting with the investigations,” the shipping firm said.
“Out of respect for the investigation and all involved we will not comment further at this time.”
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Sky News above North Sea ship collision
HM Coastguard said in an update that the Solong is still alight
US tanker Stena Immaculate was anchored off the coast of East Yorkshire when the Solong crashed into it at around 9.45am on Monday.
Some 36 people were brought safely to the shore, but one person was reported missing from the cargo ship.
At least one tank of Jet-A1 fuel onboard the Stena Immaculate was ruptured, its operator said
At around 11.20pm, the Solong started to drift southwards away from the crash site. HM Coastguard said in an update earlier on Tuesday that the ship is still alight.
Tugboats are in the vicinity to ensure it remains away from the coast
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the container ship is expected to stay afloat, after a minister told parliament that it could sink earlier in the day.
She said she met with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s chief executive Virginia McVea, and was “pleased to have been informed that early indications suggest that both vessels are now expected to stay afloat”.
Ernst Russ also denied reports the vessel was carrying sodium cyanide and said: “There are four empty containers that have previously contained the hazardous chemical.
“These containers will continue to be monitored.”
Stena Immaculate was carrying 220,000 barrels of Jet-A1 fuel in 16 tanks, at least one of which was ruptured, its operator also said.
UK
Triple killer Kyle Clifford will serve whole-life sentence for murdering BBC commentator’s family
Triple killer Kyle Clifford has been handed a whole-life sentence for murdering his ex-girlfriend, her mother and her sister.
Warning: This article contains distressing details.
The sentence imposed by Mr Justice Bennathan means he will never be released.
The former soldier, 26, admitted murdering BBC racing commentator John Hunt’s wife Carol Hunt, 61, and their daughters Louise, 25, and Hannah, 28.
He also pleaded guilty to false imprisonment of his former partner Louise, as well as possession of the crossbow used to kill her and her sister, and the 10-inch butcher’s knife he stabbed their mother to death with.
Louise Hunt
Pic: Facebook
Clifford denied raping Louise, who had broken up with him 13 days before the four-hour attack in the Hunt family home on 9 July last year.
But he was found guilty by a jury last week after a trial at Cambridge Crown Court, which he refused to attend, prompting police and prosecutors to brand him a “coward”.
The judge paid tribute “to the astonishing dignity and courage” of the victims’ family, including John Hunt and his surviving daughter Amy, who hugged after the sentence.
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Footage shows Clifford fleeing the Hunt family home
They, along with Hannah’s partner Alex Klein, had read emotional victim impact statements in court as Mr Hunt said hell would roll out the “red carpet” for him.
He said the evidence showed Clifford “to be a jealous man, soaked in self-pity – a man who holds women in utter contempt”.
The court heard Clifford, from Enfield, north London, began planning the murders after Louise ended their 18-month relationship in a message on 26 June.
Carol Hunt pictured with her husband John Hunt.
Pic: Facebook
He tricked his way inside before stabbing her mother to death in what prosecutors said was a “brutal knife attack”, then lay in wait for an hour for Louise to enter the house.
Clifford held her for more than two hours, as he restrained her with duct tape and raped her, then shot her through the chest with a crossbow moments before her sister Hannah got home and was also killed.
He fled the scene and shot himself with the weapon as armed police descended and is now paralysed from the chest down.
The recovered crossbow.
Pic: Hertfordshire Police
The 10-inch butcher’s knife Clifford used was never found but police released an image of the packaging.
Pic: PA
The judge told Clifford, who didn’t attend his sentencing hearing, he went to the Hunt family home to launch “a murderous attack” on his ex-girlfriend’s family.
“You first killed her mother Carol, who even on that day showed you nothing but kindness in the moments before you attacked her,” he said.
“You raped and killed Louise who had been as gentle as she could in ending her relationship with you, after your arrogance and anger proved too much for her to stand.
“Then you murdered Hannah Hunt, who had done nothing to harm you save supporting her little sister.”
The jury wasn’t told Clifford had searched for Andrew Tate’s podcast less than 24 hours before the murders.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said “it is no coincidence” he turned to the “poster boy for misogynists – a poster boy for those who view women as possession to be controlled” the night before committing such “acts of violence against women”.
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