Post Office 'lied and threatened' BBC over Panorama whistleblower report

12 January 2024 , 19:08

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The Post Office made complaints to senior BBC managers ahead of the programme, the broadcaster said (Image: PA)

The Post Office threatened, lied, and tried to intimidate the BBC over a Horizon whistleblower interview, the broadcaster has claimed.

In a bombshell report, the BBC said the under-fire organisation "failed" in its efforts to suppress key evidence that later helped to clear wrongly convicted postmasters.

In 2015 Panorama ran testimony from ex-Fujitsu engineer Richard Roll, who said the Horizon computer system could be secretly altered - something denied by the Post Office. Before Trouble at the Post Office was aired, the BBC said it was sent "intimidating letters by Post Office lawyers" at the time.

The BBC, which pressed ahead with the programme after a short delay, claimed the Post Office also threatened to sue Panorama and complaints made to senior BBC managers. The report added: "This was just the latest in a long line of lobbying, misinformation and outright lies that had faced a small number of BBC journalists trying to uncover the truth about the Post Office scandal."

The scandal saw hundreds of subpostmasters handed criminal convictions after dodgy IT made it appear as though money was missing at their branches. Victims have described their lives being torn apart as they were shunned by their communities, financially ruined and having their families destroyed.

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A Post Office spokesperson told The Mirror: “We share fully the aims of the Public Inquiry to get to the truth of what went wrong in the past and establish accountability. It’s for the Inquiry to reach its own independent conclusions after consideration of all the evidence on the issues that it is examining.”

At the Public Inquiry into the IT scandal on Friday, a legal representative for the Post Office said he understood "profound mistrust in many quarters" after a litany of disclosure failings. In November around 363,000 emails were found on a "legacy" mailing system, resulting in witnesses being delayed. Chris Jackson, a partner at the law firm Burges Salmon, said the Post Office sent its apologies for the most recent delay.

Earlier this week Ms Vennells gave up her CBE after 1.2million people demanded she be stripped of the award amid growing anger over the Post Office scandal. She said: "I am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system. I now intend to continue to focus on assisting the inquiry and will not make any further public comment until it has concluded."

Ashley Cowburn