Shutting Down

Former GC accused of helping PO CEO shut down MPs and Alan Bates

Channel Four’s Alex Thomas produced a brilliant film, based on secret recordings, exposing former Post Office GC Susan Crichton to allegations that she wanted, at the CEO Paula Venells’ behest, to shut down allegations of Horizon Problems from MPs and Alan Bates of the Justice for Sub-Postmaster's Alliance.

Crichton is reported to have said on a summary of the tape that Paul Vennells (then CEO) was concerned to shut down the MPs and the Post Office staff wanted to control Alan Bates’ campaign for the Justice for Sub-Postmasters Alliance. She talks about managing them and asks for suggestions as to how to shut them down.

In response to concerns raised by Ron Warmington, Director of Second Sight the independent investigators supposedly looking at complaints and Horizon flaws, that he had not been provided with any information to enable him to investigate a large number of complaints, Susan Crichton is said to have said that, “further cases should not go through the Second Sight process [the process agreed with MPs and supposed to be independent] but rather through a Post Office Ltd managed process with senior oversight.”

This became the complaints a mediation scheme which James (now Lord) Arbuthnot described as “duplicitous”.

An interesting detail is whether Crichton was helping shut down complaints before or after the advice from Simon Clarke that PO prosecutions past, present, and potentially future were profoundly flawed.

And it puts into a new light evidence from John Scott, an unsympathetic witness before the Inquiry who remembered little, but did write an email to Crichton in 14 August 2013, at 7.39 in the morning. This was after the Clarke advice. It said:

Susan.

The brief given by yourself for this meeting was to provide in effect an under the radar escalation point from across the business of issues that may impact the integrity of the Horizon System. You were frustrated in regards to the production and circulation of the Helen Rose report and therefore did not want any electronic communication which may be subject to FOI [Freedom of Information] or Disclosure

.

Shortly afterwards Crichton was gone.

It’s worth noting that the film opens with Tracey Felstead. Jailed as a 19 year old, probably because after her trial she refused any show of contrition for an event she did not do. They sent her to Holloway. One of her teenage children has told her how glad they are they don't bear her name because of all that it is associated with for them. You can watch it here on X.