Mr Bates vs The Post Office: Inside Episode 3 | Masterpiece

How ineffective was the mediation process at the post office?

Episode 3 shows Second Sights Bob Rutherford tells Alan Bates that the Post Office is hindering his investigation. He says the Subpostmasters should take the Post Office to court rather than trust its offer to negotiate. However, without funds for a lawyer, Bates and his colleagues agree to the mediation scheme.

The mediation began in 2013 and Bates shared over 100 cases, according to the documentary The True Story of Mr Bates vs the Post Office, which will be broadcast on Sunday, April 28, KRYEVEPR^th at 11 p.m. ET and again on Sunday, May 5^th at 7:00 PM ET. The whole process was only supposed to take x many months, but in total, it took years, Bates says in the film. Post Office lawyers used various delaying tactics and were said to have told victims they did not have time to make their claims. After more than a year, no case has been finalized. Then, just weeks after the Post gave evidence to a Parliament select committee, it canceled the mediation altogether.

In its announcement, the Post Office said 56 of the 136 cases made had already been closed, while the remainder were being put up for mediation, unless they were already subject to a court decision, it said. Computer Weekly. Angela van den Bogerd, the Post's head of partnerships, said that this has been an exhaustive and informative process which has confirmed that there are no system-wide problems with our computer system.

What is the role of Paula Vennels in the Church of England?

During a radio interview with the Paula Vennells portrayed in Episode 3, the presenter mentions that, in addition to her role as CEO of the Post Office, Vennels is a priest in the Church of England.

Ms Vennells was ordained in the Church of England in 2005, according to BBC news. As an assistant minister, she preached part-time and unpaid in the Diocese of St. Albans. Vennells was even interviewed for the role of Bishop of London, the third most senior in the Church of England, but was not appointed from a shortlist of three. She was still chief executive of the Post Office at the time.

Even after her 2019 departure from the Post Office, Vennells was appointed to join the Church of England's ethical investment committee, according to standard (UK). She resigned from her post as an Anglican priest in April 2021.

How did the postmasters finally find a lawyer?

In Episode 3, a lawyer in a taxi listens to a radio program with Jo Hamilton talking about the 150 page Subpostmasters contracts. He asks the driver to turn up the volume and then exits the cab excitedly.

Real contract lawyer James Hartley was driving to his office in Leeds when he heard the BBC radio show. I thought to myself, there might be something we can do about this to help. It didn't sound right, Hartley says in the documentary The true story of Mr Bates vs Post Office. He took the initiative to contact Alan Bates and discuss the evidence. I had to weigh whether or not we could raise the necessary litigation funds. The only way we were going to be able to break through this was a full-scale group action. A nationwide search began, with 555 postmasters eventually pursuing a class-action injunction against the Post Office.

Did a Fujitsu whistleblower call Alan Bates?

At the end of Episode 3, Bates almost refuses a call from someone in technical support at Fujitsu. The man on the phone says everyone is lying; there it Was remote access to post office accounts. The caller reveals he was on a Fujitsu team making thousands of fixes to Horizon every night, addressing coding errors, bugs and data corruption. Who was this whistleblower?

It was Richard Roll, a former computer technician at Fujitsu from 2001 to 2004. Roll first gave his life evidence to the press, rather than a government authority. He told his story in a recording of the BBC program in 2015 Panorama. BBC news reports that the broadcast of the programs was delayed several weeks because the Post's lawyers sent letters threatening a lawsuit.