The event was hosted by the University of Law in London, with Paul Marshall of Cornerstone Barristers the speaker. A DRD team, led by Partner Kate Miller, recently provided pro bono support to some of the appellants during the recent landmark Court of Appeal victory.

The Intersection of Law, Ethics And Politics

“I am talking to you today about the most serious series of miscarriages of justice in recent English history. To put it in tabloid terms, for 20 years the Post Office hijacked the English criminal justice system and used it, essentially as part of the Post Office for its own purposes. In the process, it ruined the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of innocent people.”

Paul Marshall delivered an impassioned and elegantly constructed analysis, setting the tragic personal stories of affected Subpostmasters against the institutional failures across the Post Office, legal profession and government which combined to deny them justice.

Particularly striking was a successful ground for appeal advanced by Marshall, that the Post Office’s decision to prosecute the subpostmasters was an “affront to the public conscience.” The ruling now opens the possibility of further civil action and significant compensation claims from the subpostmasters on grounds of malicious prosecution.

The full text of Paul Marshall’s speech is available here.