Revisited: the Post Office scandal – part 1

Today in Focus

The Guardian

Daily News, News

4.6 • 5.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

When a computer system installed by the Post Office malfunctioned, it led to the convictions of scores of subpostmasters for theft and false accounting. Lives were wrecked. After an ITV dramatisation brought new attention to the case, the Metropolitan police said they had commenced a criminal fraud investigation in relation to the Post Office. Today we re-run our episodes from 2021 on the scandal in full. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Guardian.
0:09.0	Hi, this is Neshane.
0:10.0	Following the huge impact of the recent I TV dramatization, the post office
0:16.8	IT scandal, one of Britain's worst ever miscarriages of justice has been center
0:22.3	stage in the news again.
0:24.2	Back in 2021 we looked in depth at this story over two episodes and the shocking way the
0:30.0	Post Office ignored warnings about glitches in its computer system and instead
0:34.9	aggressively pursued prosecutions against its own staff.
0:39.1	Today we're rerunning both episodes in full.
0:42.1	This is part one.
0:49.0	I was sat down and the judge obviously the
0:53.6	I had to stand and give my name.
0:55.9	I was in the middle of an interview with Janet Skinner
0:59.2	when this happened.
1:00.5	How serious offense this was. And there was no other way but to
1:07.2	Is that your phone? Yeah, it is yeah.
1:09.7	Answer it by all means.
1:11.2	Do you know what nobody ever rings my house firm?
1:13.9	Just bear with me.
1:19.9	And then a minute later?
1:21.5	Yes.
1:24.8	Yes, absolutely.
	...

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