Anyone just watched Mr Bates v the Post Office? *GNHQ tweaked the title*

Petition signed. I could barely contain my tears and rage whilst watching this programme. Paula Vennells should face criminal prosecution and prison. Is she still an ordained priest? If so, she should be fearing the flames of hell.

I remember reading every single week in the newspapers from around 2012 about yet another postmaster found guilty of fraud. I commented to my husband how strange and unusual it was that there was a sudden plethora of crooked postmasters. His exact words were "there must be more to it". How right he was.

I have read the Private Eye examination of the case and it is an example of thorough detailed journalism. It makes me shudder to think that there is no guarantee that such a scandal could not recur; and that we are all in thrall to these huge organisations and global companies. Three cheers for the MPs who took up the case.

If I were a middle-ranking executive who worked in the Post Office during Vennells 'tenure, I would be seriously worried.
It is obvious from the brief clip shown on ITV news of her questioning, and refusing to answer, at the tribunal(?) by Savid Javid that she feels not the slightest shred of guilt, and that someone else will be held responsible, for giving her the wrong advice.

Like Ed Davey, who refused to meet Alan Bates, because he was told not to.

I swear this thread seemed to temporarily disappear, but now is back again. We should have watched this from the start instead of the rather violent and slightly rubbishy The Tourist over on BBC. Caught up with this last night, two episodes, Oh God what a travesty, what a miscarriage of justice. That man, Alan Bates, what a hero! and certainly shamed Paula Vennells, has the woman no moral fibre she accepted her CBE in 2019 when so many of the innocent post masters/mistresses had had their lives ruined. Like many of the public, I knew the bare bones but had no idea of the extent of it, how they were stitched up in so many ways, the awful Horizon computer system, the shocking revelation that their accounts could be accessed, the helpline that would tell them "no one else is having these problems" all of it. No one at the Post Office least of all her, Paula Vennels accepting any culpability. shocking!

This programme was making me so angry that I had to stop watching it. I had no idea of the extent of it and it's truly shocking.

Found the petition on 38 Degrees and signed, signatures up to about 117,000 now a sharp increase, that's all we can do to show our outrage. I'm not on FB but sent it on to my friend who is, who will get to work on that score.

Post Officer investigator Gary Thomas
emailed his colleague to say he wanted to prove there was ‘FFFiiinnn no case for the justice of thieving subpostmasters’ [sic] and that ‘we were the best investigators they ever had and they were all crooks’.

Thomas, giving evidence to the inquiry, said his words then were ‘absolutely disgraceful’. He added: ‘My inference here, that everybody was guilty, is wrong and I’m embarrassed, is all I can say.’

Embarrassed?

Thomas had no previous experience of criminal investigations before joining the security team, but a three week residential course soon put that right.

www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/post-office-investigator-dismissed-victims-as-crooks-inquiry-hears/5118188.article
www.postofficescandal.uk/post/garys-years-of-hurt/

Ps This man wrecked people's lives, some committed suicide - and he's embarrassed??

🤬

It was a terrible injustice and so many people in senior management knew but ignored it.

Why was our media so quiet about it? Even now? I had read about these horrible injustices some time ago, but it was never really explained.

Ladyleftfieldlover - so very sad for your postmistress. Nothing could compensate her for her losses. All too little, and far too late. Makes me feel that we are truly living in a second rate country.

no, I haven`t watched it, I heard of this way back, and so fed up, heartily fed up, difficult to think about the corruption in the UK,(let alone the rest of the world) and so little we can do about it, and we, ie. the Western world preach to other countries about their corruption, UGH!

That’s so very sad - my heart breaks watching what these families went through

And Paula Vennells walked into a top job at the NHS. Didn't stay long . I wonder why ??

It is not just the post office who need to be punished but the computer company Fujitsu who are very culpable too. They covered up their own mistakes and ut the blame onto the postmasters and should be closed down. An absolute disgrace. Those poor postmasters and families.

We ended up binge watching and it was utterly devastating. The “real” Mr Bates was on the radio earlier in the week and he and the MP who supported him are truly remarkable men. There’s also a 1 hour documentary on ITVX.

I couldn’t believe how many years those poor people had to wait for the truth to come out. Just ordinary, honest people trying to make a living for their families.

Below I have cut and pasted information from Nick Wallis's website:

Hello, my name is Nick Wallis. I am a freelance journalist. This website is designed to be a hub for my activity reporting the Post Office Horizon Scandal. Most of the work I have done on this story is crowdfunded. The crowdfunding pays for the journalism on this website. Occasionally I get lucky and someone pays me to do a bit of broadcast or newspaper journalism, which I am always grateful for.

I have presented, produced and consulted on three BBC Panoramas about the Post Office scandal. I have written about it for Private Eye (with the genius that is Richard Brooks) and presented a BBC Radio 4 series on the subject called The Great Post Office Trial (produced by the genius that is Bob Nicholson). I have also written a book called The Great Post Office Scandal, which you can buy here or from Amazon, here. Most recently, I was series consultant on the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

If you want to stay on top of what is happening with the scandal and are able to make a small (or large) donation, you will be added to the ‘secret’ email – an irregular and sometimes irreverent newsletter which will give you the inside track on what is happening around this story. There are now many hundreds of subscribers to the secret email, which started in 2018, just before the first trial in the Bates v Post Office High Court litigation. My work on that case can be found here.

If you are not in a financial position to make a donation or buy a book, do not worry – please treat this website as a free and open resource.

Excellent programme. Watching it with feelings of anger and heartbreak. If I had been watching it as a fictional drama I would have doubted the credibility of it, but as we know it was true and a scandal unlike any other in our time.

My heart broke watching this in one sitting. Those two women àt the Post Office should be prosecuted and the book thrown at them. To hear that the Vennells woman was an ordained CofE priest is unbelievable and just shows the utter hypocrisy of these vile, dishonest people.

The greatest miscarriage of justice in British legal history. I have been following events closely for some time and have never understood why not one person could see that for hundreds if not thousands of postmasters to suddenly become dishonest was by any standards of rational thought, an impossibility. And also if they were suspected of stealing such large sons of money that no attempt was made to investigate what they had done with this money.
The public enquiry is ongoing and due to report sometime this year. I hope and believe that following its conclusion there will be criminal prosecutions both in relation to the Post Office and Fujitsu. In the meantime I have of course signed petition regarding Paula Vennells.

Let’s not forget, also that this scandal is costing us as taxpayers millions and millions.

Petition signed

It's unbelievable that she has not voluntarily handed back her honours award, let alone used her "golden handshake " to pay towards those who lost everything.

Why isn't the Post Office stripped of its ability to investigate without involving the police?

Isn't the cover-up perverting the cause of justice?

There is also a petition on Change.org which is asking for "Post Office Scandal Compensation & Accountability," which can be found here. chng.it/jgSrZpcsM9

Apart from the stripping of titles, etc, I do think we should be ensuring that the cases of people who pleaded guilty because they were so bullied should be looked at again so that they receive the compensation they deserve.