'People are now listening,' Post Office inquiry told as final phase ends

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The public legal inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal was said to now be drawing attention as lawyers closed its fourth phase. After months of questioning and several delays, the inquiry phase investigating the Post Office's unfair prosecutions of branch managers heard powerful final submissions. Legal representatives for the main participants concluded phase four submissions, with KC Tim Moloney, representing former subpostmasters affected by the scandal, referring to how the broadcast of ITV's dramatization of the Post Office scandal Public interest has increased in what is considered the largest Justice miscarriage in modern UK history. He said there has been "a powerful groundswell" and "now people are listening." Moloney went on to describe the shocking revelations of the investigation phase, which exposed the negligence of the Post Office and outside lawyers, as well as investigators. “Only when the tide goes out can you see who has been swimming naked,” he said. He also referred to the “institutional amnesia” that has prevented the investigation from reaching the truth, and said that what was revealed included an “obscene reversal of the burden of proof,” which left deputy directors responsible for providing evidence that they did not.

They had taken the missing money: an impossible task without access to and understanding of the computer system used to provide evidence against them. • Watch also: ITV Post Office Scandal Documentary: The True Story. • Also read: What you need to know about the Horizon scandal. Sam Stein, a KC who also represents those who were victims of the Post Office's scandalous behavior, said the fourth phase of the investigation has revealed America Mobile Number List  that many former and current employees are "liars and amnesiacs" and despise subpostmasters. . He referred to the view within the Post Office that the people who ran the branches "were all criminals". Closing the phase, which began in July, inquiry chair Wyn Williams also announced that the next two phases would be combined and hearings would begin on Tuesday, April 9. Former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells and controversial postmaster Angela van den Bogerd will be questioned, as will Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey. The fourth phase of the investigation was hampered by delays due to the Post Office's failure to deliver documents on time.



What is legal public inquiry? After a subpostmaster victory in the High Court in 2019 against the Post Office, which showed that the Horizon system was to blame for the losses, the first thing former subpostmaster and justice campaigner Alan Bates told Computer Weekly was that he wanted a public investigation into the scandal. He obtained it in May 2021, when a government investigation into the scandal became legal. The investigation is divided into seven phases. So far it has heard statements from victims in the human impact phase, investigated the Horizon computer system, examined its operation and knowledge of errors, as well as legal action against subpostmasters. • Read more about the first phase of the public inquiry: The British people are waking up to the scandal that happened right under their noses. • Read a summary of the second phase: Post Office Scandal: 'A mistake or a fabrication'? • Read a summary of Phase Three: Post Office Scandal: Cover-up of a 'Dark Chapter' in Government, Corporate and Legal History. Computer Weekly first exposed the scandal in 2009, revealing the stories of seven vice principals and the problems they suffered as a result of the Horizon system. Hundreds of people were prosecuted, some 200 sent to prison and 100 have had unjust convictions overturned.