A sub-postmaster’s journey
Tim Brentnall's story
Phase 4 of the Inquiry gets into the nitty gritty of investigations and legal action taken on the back of horizon shortfalls.
With that in mind, and for those quite new to the PO Scandal, I have done a short video as an explainer of a paradigm case of a sub-postmaster or -postmistresses’ journey from being presented with an unexplained shortfall by the Post Office's Horizon system to being convicted of dishonesty, a conviction eventually quashed in 2021.
Thank you Richard. The more I understand the story the more strongly I feel the need to rise up (a bit difficult as I am currently in a wheelchair). The work of people like you and Alan Bates, Paul Marshall and El Shaikh and Nick Wallis and Dan Neidle, Tom Witherow and of course many brave Subpostmasters leaves me in awe. This video is a perfect reminder and so very well put together. The voice over was just right and I was so moved by Tim's understated, calm and economical summary at the end of why the Inquiry must clearly focus on the people who made the decisions in the Post Office, pursued (and persecuted) subpostmasters with the help of Government, the treasury and the civil service as well as some lawyers. They must not be allowed behind a faulty cobbled together computer system. They must all be brought to account.
Richard, this is a delicately understated portrait, with an utterly remarkable victim, who simply does not deserve to be summed up with that terse label. Thank you. This horror story never ceases to shock me, but you bring it to life with a discipline of thinking that is compelling. And yet the rage this should induce takes too long to find proper expression in society.