The Post Office Scandal and the tireless work of Eleanor Shaik to uncover the truth

Anyone who has been looking at yet more disgusting behaviour of #PostOffice which has recently come to light, will know that its prosecutors, tasked with investigating sub-postmasters, were asked to group suspects based on racial features. This use of #categorisationcodes, is getting the huge #media and #socialmedia coverage it needs and deserves , I hope you know this information came to light because of the ceaseless work of #EleanorShaikh. She is untiring in requesting information from Post Office using the Freedom of Information?Act. It is a time consuming process and we all send her our thanks.

?Of course, one of the threads running through years of the #PostOfficeScandal (think?#ClarkeAdvice , #ShreddingAdvice and #SwiftReview ) is a propensity for people within that organisation to work on the “cover up / non-disclosure ” basis. I wonder what else remains buried.

?Because Eleanor isn’t on #LinkedIn , I wanted people to be able to read her powerful comments about this and other matters. Please do take the time to read it. Thank you.

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"The terminology in this document leaves me utterly speechless; I’m saddened that its revelation will have caused distress to some extraordinary ex-Sub-Postmasters who’ve already been exposed to the most appalling injustice. I can’t speak highly enough of their dignity and fortitude throughout this scandal and this is one more cruel blow from the company for whom, in many cases, they had devoted their lives.?

Among the multiple failings in this scandal which warrant scrutiny, it’s important to understand how it was that multiple Sub-Postmasters were coerced into making false confessions. Some did this because, at the time, it was the only option they saw to get out of their dreadful situation and avoid imprisonment.

It would have been very straightforward for Post Office investigators to check if these confessions were true but in at least two cases that I have come across, this didn’t happen. Doesn’t a prosecutorial function bring with it an obligation to ensure than confessions aren’t made under duress?

In some cases, even now, the #PostOffice is using the false confessions as evidence of guilt external to #Horizon; that is, as a means of reducing the compensation owed to that individual. It’s an utter travesty.?

It’s for this reason that I wanted to try to uncover something of the Post Office Investigations mindset, but I certainly wasn’t expecting to find what I did.?

The next question is what exactly it did the Post Office do with the data it collected on the ethnicity of its ‘offenders’. Who saw or used this information and to what end? Were Sub-Postmasters categorised into high or low risk profiles according to their ethnicity? What other reason would there be to collect this information???

If so, were the #thumbscrews applied a bit more tightly during investigations of Sub-Postmasters deemed to be a bit more likely to be a thief or a liar according to their ‘ethnic profile’? Did that pressure translate into more false confessions for those with certain ‘identification codes? How else might it have translated into the Investigator’s treatment of Sub-Postmasters? There are many deeply uncomfortable questions but ultimately, I trust that Sir Wyn William’s Public Inquiry won’t shy away from shining its light into the Post Office’s darkest corners.

The Post Office now rightly acknowledges that this appalling terminology should be consigned to history. But the mindset which it encapsulates, and which may have influenced the outcomes of some investigations, may still be haunting the way in which some cases for compensation are playing out. Look at the ethnicity of the Sub-Postmasters at the centre of the three ‘public interest’ cases’?. "

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