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To: HM Government - Justice Secretary Mr Alex Chalk
Post Office Scandal: Grant a Royal Pardon to convicted Post Office staff
Evidence has been produced that the Post Office engaged in a mass cover up which led to the wrongful prosecution of 550 Post Office Staff many of whom were subsequently jailed, bankrupted and in some cases, sadly took their own lives. As a recently retired Solicitor familiar with the civil and criminal legal process during 35 years in practice I am horrified that there has been such a wilful and material suppression of evidence in relation to the Horizon system .
In 2019, in a civil a class action case, Bates & Ors v Post Office Ltd, was settled by the Post Office in favour of the 550 sub-postmasters for over £58 million.
Mr Justice Fraser, the judge in the case concluded that the approach of the Post Office: "amounted, in reality, to bare assertions and denials that ignore what has actually occurred, at least so far as the witnesses called before me in the Horizon Issues trial are concerned. It amounts to the 21st century equivalent of maintaining that the earth is flat."
On Sunday 7 January 2024 the Sunday Times reported:-
“The justice secretary is exploring how to exonerate hundreds of sub-postmasters unjustly convicted during the Horizon IT scandal amid mounting pressure on the government to respond to the “biggest miscarriage of justice” in British history.
Alex Chalk is looking at whether the Post Office can be stripped of its role in the appeals process, with many victims still attempting to overturn wrongful convictions.”
Whilst these steps may be appropriate for future prosecutions unrelated to Horizon it is not appropriate for Post Office Staff some of whom have spent 2 decades under investigation, then losing their livelihoods and being unjustly convicted.
The only way to ensure that the postmasters and postmistresses who were convicted are swiftly and fully exonerated is to grant them a royal pardon under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy which is a power reserved to the Justice Secretary ( Lord Chancellor) Alex Chalk. I include in this number those whose convictions were not overturned on appeal ( 54) and those who were refused permission to appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal. This is because ( as has been shown from evidence at the current inquiry) the Post Office lawyers and Post Office Board and Fujitsu suppressed material evidence about the Fujitsu Horizon system. This affront to justice has gone on far too long.
Mr Chalk’s time would be better spent drafting the appropriate parliamentary bill to be enacted under the prerogative rather than tinker with the prosecuting process and asking the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to take over the appeals yet to be progressed. Taking the step he proposes to transfer prosecuting power to the CPS would need a parliamentary bill anyway.
These grossly wronged and decent people have suffered enough and waited long enough and deserve their pardon.
In the words of Martin Luther King the American Civil Rights campaigner “ justice too long delayed is justice denied”.
So please Mr Chalk, examine your conscience and do the decent thing - grant them their pardon.
In 2019, in a civil a class action case, Bates & Ors v Post Office Ltd, was settled by the Post Office in favour of the 550 sub-postmasters for over £58 million.
Mr Justice Fraser, the judge in the case concluded that the approach of the Post Office: "amounted, in reality, to bare assertions and denials that ignore what has actually occurred, at least so far as the witnesses called before me in the Horizon Issues trial are concerned. It amounts to the 21st century equivalent of maintaining that the earth is flat."
On Sunday 7 January 2024 the Sunday Times reported:-
“The justice secretary is exploring how to exonerate hundreds of sub-postmasters unjustly convicted during the Horizon IT scandal amid mounting pressure on the government to respond to the “biggest miscarriage of justice” in British history.
Alex Chalk is looking at whether the Post Office can be stripped of its role in the appeals process, with many victims still attempting to overturn wrongful convictions.”
Whilst these steps may be appropriate for future prosecutions unrelated to Horizon it is not appropriate for Post Office Staff some of whom have spent 2 decades under investigation, then losing their livelihoods and being unjustly convicted.
The only way to ensure that the postmasters and postmistresses who were convicted are swiftly and fully exonerated is to grant them a royal pardon under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy which is a power reserved to the Justice Secretary ( Lord Chancellor) Alex Chalk. I include in this number those whose convictions were not overturned on appeal ( 54) and those who were refused permission to appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal. This is because ( as has been shown from evidence at the current inquiry) the Post Office lawyers and Post Office Board and Fujitsu suppressed material evidence about the Fujitsu Horizon system. This affront to justice has gone on far too long.
Mr Chalk’s time would be better spent drafting the appropriate parliamentary bill to be enacted under the prerogative rather than tinker with the prosecuting process and asking the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to take over the appeals yet to be progressed. Taking the step he proposes to transfer prosecuting power to the CPS would need a parliamentary bill anyway.
These grossly wronged and decent people have suffered enough and waited long enough and deserve their pardon.
In the words of Martin Luther King the American Civil Rights campaigner “ justice too long delayed is justice denied”.
So please Mr Chalk, examine your conscience and do the decent thing - grant them their pardon.
Why is this important?
It is one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British Legal History. It shames our nation. A Royal Pardon is the quickest way now to end the suffering of,and to exonerate all those convicted in the Post Office Horizon Scandal.
