Mr Bates & Ms Vennells & Justice

 

Did you watch the British series, Mr. Bates vs the Post Office when it was on PBS a few weeks ago? It is a docudrama about what has been described as the greatest miscarriage of justice in modern British history. Here is a synopsis:

A faulty IT system called Horizon creates apparent cash shortfalls that cause Post Office Limited to pursue prosecutions for fraud, theft and false accounting against a number of subpostmasters across the UK. In 2009, a group of these, led by Alan Bates forms the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance. The prosecutions and convictions are later ruled a miscarriage of justice at the conclusion of the Bates v Post Office judicial case of 2019.

The four-part series is well-acted and well told and totally outraging. These employees of the Post Office, about nine hundred of them, were dismissed, often bankrupted, and a few went to prison. Several took their own lives. There is lots of evidence that employees of Fujitsu, which created Horizon, and the executives and lawyers for the Post Office were aware that the program was faulty yet insisted that the postmasters were thieves and liable for the errors.

                                                                    from Mr Bates vs the Post Office 

The injustice is appalling but what really struck me is that the CEO of the Post Office at the time, Paula Vennells, was also an Anglican priest. Supposedly a committed Christian, she led worship at her local parish church and was purportedly a candidate to become the bishop of London. Meanwhile, she defended her corporation vigorously despite growing evidence of the faulty program, all for the bottom line and the image of the Post Office. 

There is a scene in the series when Ms Vennells is in the pulpit and reading a passage of scripture of which she was fond. It's from 1 Kings and is called the Prayer of Solomon:

“Now, Lord my God … give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong … in administering justice …”

The wisdom of Solomon seems to have escaped Ms Vennells who testified over several days last week during the inquiry into what went so terribly wrong. She expressed her deep sorrow and acknowledged mistakes and att one point she wept, which didn't sit well with some of the victims. 

Those who were wronged did have their convictions overturned and hundreds of millions of pounds in restitution will be paid. They have finally been officially exonerated after their nightmare. The actual Mr Bates, one of the accused, has been a remarkably tenacious advocate for the others for many years. This must be very satisfying. 

It's really unlikely that Ms. Vennells, who was paid the equivalent of a million dollars a year (Cdn) in her final year of employment will be prosecuted except in the court of public opinion and perhaps in answer to a higher power. May God have mercy on her, mercy not shown to the postmasters.