Thread by @nickwallis

Good morning. Three weeks to the day after the amazing scenes outside the Court of Appeal where 39 Subpostmaster convictions were quashed, we are at Southwark Crown Court for two more cases to be decided.
Thread follows.
#PostOfficeScandal

Parmod Kalia and Teju Adedayo are hoping to get their convictions quashed. My live-tweeting summarises and describes what is happening, it is not verbatim unless it is in “diret quotes.”

PO barrister on her feet setting out the case:

Parmod Kalia pleaded guilty on 17 Dec 2001 Bromley to one charge of theft of £22k. He was sentenced to 6 months in prison.

Teju (Tara) Adedayo on 19 Jan 2006 pleaded guilty to 3 charges of false accounting to £52k with 10 further offences of false accounting...

… She received 50 weeks imprisonment suspended for 2 years.

The Post Office is not resisting their appeals.

On 11 Dec 2020 six people had their convictions quashed by this court but Parmod and Adedayo (P&A) were not referred at the time by the CCRC because of their...

… confessions. Further material was submitted to the CCRC and they were referred.

On 23 April the Court of Appeal distinguished between Horizon-related appeals which it said was an abuse of process and those which were not Horizon-related and did not allow those appeals...

In the letters that the PO wrote to this court and appellants and was not contesting these cases, we looked at the CCRC’s reasons, the papers available, the CoA judgment and the code for Crown Prosecutors. Having looked at them all and taken into account the confessions, we have

… concluded that Horizon was NOT central to their case and their confessions stand. BUT we now with reference to the Code for Prosecutors we do not believe it is in the public interest to resist the appeals. A prosecution is retrospectively not required in the public interest...

… we therefore offer no evidence in relation to these appellants.

Appellants QC says: we do not accept this analysis from the Post Office but it is immaterial in the circumstances we wish to say no more about it.

Judge: you do not have to apply to set aside your...

… your guilty pleas. We adopt the findings of the Court of Appeal.

These appellants join those whose appeals have not been contested, their sentences have been served and we hope they can put this behind them...

… and get on with their lives without the shadow of their convictions and we therefore allow the appeals.

Judge rises. It’s all over. Teju and Parmod leave the court first, both in tears. Neil Hudgell (their solicitor) whispers “Congrtulations!” as they walk out in silence...

… everyone is still standing. They follow the cleared appellants out.

The number of Subpostmasters whose convictions have been cleared rises to 47. I’m going outside to conduct some interviews and take some photos. The live tweeting ends here.

My reporting of this story...

… has been entirely funded by donations. These have powered the postofficetrial.com website which is now a public resource for journalists, historians, academics and lawyers interested in this story.

Thank you if you have contributed in any way. You have helped expose...

… an extraordinary miscarriage of justice. I appreciate the privilege of being able to continue reporting it.

ENDS

@threadreaderapp unroll pls

Here’s the write-up from today:

“Two more convictions quashed - total now 47”

(not the world’s most inspiring headline, but hey… factual)

postofficetrial.com/2021/05/two-mo…

#PostOfficeScandal