Quote of the day 11th April 2024

“It is the greatest scandal that I have ever seen in the criminal justice process.

“We’ve had many miscarriages of justice but nowhere as many as these we need to re-evaluate how we approach criminal cases of this kind. 

“Something went very very wrong.”


Sir Anthony Hooper, the retired High Court judge who had been brought in by the Post office  as chairman of a working group, which reviewed cases of sub-postmasters who believed they had been wrongfully blamed for shortfalls, giving evidence this week to the Inquiry into the Horizon scandal. He added that he had repeatedly told the then head of the Post Office, Paula Vennels, that he was concerned that there had been miscarriages of Justice and the Post Office case didn't add up.

Addressing the inquiry, he said: “As I say in my witness statement, I tried to make it clear to Paula Vennells and to the chair [of the board] that the Post Office’s case didn’t make sense and I felt that throughout and no doubt Second Sight [forensic accountants] did.

“It didn’t make sense that reputable sub-postmasters, appointed by the Post Office after an examination of their characters, would be stealing these sums of money. It didn’t make sense.”

“I feared miscarriages of justice and I wanted everything to be done so those people could have their convictions quashed before they died.”

He added: “It just never made sense and I made that point over and over again.”

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