#miscarriagesofjustice

[thxnews]

UK Post Office Horizon Convictions Quashed

Hundreds of postmasters have had their convictions quashed today, marking a significant milestone in one of the UK's greatest miscarriages of justice. The Royal Assent of the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024 has brought long-awaited relief to those wronged by the Horizon IT scandal. Note: The Official Government Letter to Postmasters is at the end of this article.  

Introduction

On Friday, 24 May, hundreds of postmasters finally saw their convictions quashed, a momentous event following the Royal Assent of the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024. This act addresses the infamous Horizon IT scandal, which led to wrongful convictions, financial ruin, and tarnished reputations. The quashing of these convictions provides justice and a path to financial redress for the affected postmasters.   A Scandal Unveiled The Horizon IT system, introduced by the Post Office in 1999, was intended to streamline operations. Instead, it resulted in one of the UK's largest miscarriages of justice. Between 1996 and 2018, many postmasters were wrongfully accused of theft, fraud, and false accounting due to flaws in the system. These accusations led to prosecutions that destroyed livelihoods, homes, and reputations.  

The Path to Justice

The quashing of convictions comes after years of campaigning and legal battles. The Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024 sets forth specific criteria for quashing convictions: - Prosecutions were brought by the Post Office or CPS (or in Northern Ireland, the state prosecutor or the police). - Offences were related to Post Office business between 1996 and 2018. - Relevant offences included theft, fraud, and false accounting. - Convictions were against sub-postmasters, their employees, officers, family members, or direct employees of the Post Office using the Horizon system. - Convictions had not been considered by the Court of Appeal. These criteria ensure that justice is served to those wrongfully convicted, allowing them to restore their names and receive compensation.  

The Human Cost

The impact of the Horizon IT scandal on postmasters cannot be overstated. Many endured financial ruin, lost their homes, and suffered irreparable damage to their reputations. The psychological toll was immense, with some individuals experiencing severe mental health issues due to the stress and stigma of criminal accusations.   Government Response In response to the quashing of convictions, the government has committed to ensuring swift and fair compensation for affected postmasters. The Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme, set to be fully operational by summer, will provide financial redress to those who have had their convictions quashed. An open letter to postmasters has also been published, outlining the next steps in the process.

Financial Redress Scheme

The new Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme aims to expedite compensation for those impacted by the scandal. This scheme will address the financial losses and damages suffered by postmasters, ensuring they receive the justice they deserve. The Department for Business and Trade is working diligently to implement this scheme by summer.   Key Criteria for Quashing Convictions Criteria Description Prosecutions Brought by Post Office or CPS (or state prosecutor in NI) Time Frame Offences between 1996 and 2018 Offences Theft, fraud, false accounting Affected Individuals Sub-postmasters, their employees, officers, family members, direct employees using Horizon Appeal Status Convictions not considered by Court of Appeal   A Step Forward The quashing of convictions marks a significant step forward in addressing the injustices faced by postmasters. It is a recognition of their wrongful treatment and a move towards restoring their dignity and livelihoods. This event underscores the importance of accountability and transparency in large institutions, ensuring that such a scandal does not occur again.   To Summarize The quashing of the Post Office Horizon convictions is a landmark moment in the pursuit of justice. It highlights the severe consequences of flawed systems and the resilience of those who fought for their rights. As the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme rolls out, postmasters can finally see a path to restoring their lives and reputations.  

*Exact Copy of the Official Letter to Postmasters*

Dear postmasters, The Horizon IT Scandal is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our history. Some of you have endured financial ruin, the loss of homes, livelihoods, and reputation. We have a duty to right these wrongs and deliver justice to you as quickly as possible. That’s why we introduced this Act, and why we acted quickly to make sure it was passed by Parliament before the general election. Parliament’s decision means that hundreds of convictions of innocent postmasters have been quashed. This clears your names, delivers justice, and ensures swift access to the financial redress that postmasters deserve. Convictions will be quashed if they meet the criteria set out in the Act, but in summary you will be eligible if: - prosecutions were brought about by the Post Office or CPS (or in Northern Ireland, the state prosecutor or the police) - offences were carried out in connection with Post Office business between 1996 and 2018 - your conviction(s) were for relevant offences such as theft, fraud and false accounting - your conviction(s) were against postmasters, their employees, officers, family members or direct employees of the Post Office working in a Post Office that used the Horizon system software - the conviction has not been considered by the Court of Appeal  

Updating court and criminal records

At this stage you do not need to take any further action. The Ministry of Justice has established a casework team who are in the process of identifying individuals in England & Wales whose convictions have been quashed by the Act and will write to them in the coming weeks to inform them of the quashing of their convictions. The Department of Justice is responsible for identifying and notifying individuals in Northern Ireland. The Ministry of Justice casework team will then provide details of convictions to His Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and the Police, and those agencies will amend court and police records to reflect the changes brought about by the legislation. The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) acting for the Police Service will entirely delete any records relating to quashed convictions from the Police National Computer. Completely deleting the conviction record from the Police National Computer will mean the information is not available for any operational Police or law enforcement investigations, and in addition will no longer show up on any criminal record check, such as a DBS check. The Department of Justice, Northern Ireland Courts & Tribunals Service and Police Service of Northern Ireland will take similar steps to amend records in Northern Ireland. We will write to you again to confirm when your relevant court and criminal records have been updated.  

Claiming financial redress

If you have had your convictions quashed under this legislation you will be entitled to financial redress. Work to establish the new redress scheme is underway and it will be in place by the summer, in line with previous government commitments. We will provide further information on how you can register for this scheme in due course.  

When you should contact us

We will provide further updates on progress but expect that most relevant convictions will have been identified and letters sent by the end of July. If you have not heard from the Ministry of Justice casework team or the Department of Justice by the end of July, we would encourage you to contact them directly to ensure that your conviction has been considered. To make us aware of your conviction, or for any further queries, please email: PostOfficeConvictions@justice.gov.uk, or, for Northern Ireland, PostOfficeHorizon@justice-ni.gov.uk If you would prefer you can write to: Post Office Convictions Unit 8B Berkley Way South Tyneside Tyne & Wear NE31 1SF Or for Northern Ireland: Post Office Convictions (Northern Ireland) Legacy Litigation & Projects Unit Massey House Stormont Estate Belfast BT4 3SX   Sources: THX News & Department for Business and Trade. Read the full article

[itsrattysworld]

Without Prejudice Solicitors Sola Obajuluwa Barrister Miranda Grell Stitch Mervelee Myers Up To Be Imprisoned Evicted From Housing For Women After I Endured 23 Years Of Deborah Agnes Gilchrist Saying I Would Not Be Given Any Chance To Speak My Truth I Represented Myself 2 Employment Tribunals Small Claims Court Judgement Ryan Clement £9,450.00 ECRO Samantha Jones DJ Jason Latham List Of HMCTS Judges District Judges Must Be Published To #EndHmctsMisogyny #MiscarriagesofJustice DJ Beecham Will Have To Accept That I Am The Victim Of My Disabilities To Be HCT Group Impact Report 2016 Statistic 1 In 5 Of All Suicides Associated With Unemployment

Good afternoon Ms Myers I write further to the above. Please see the attached Notice of Hearing for the sentence in the Injunction proceedings. The hearing is listed on Monday, 10th March 2025 at 10:00am with a time estimate of 2 hours before District Judge Beecham. The hearing will take place at the County Court at Clerkenwell & Shoreditch at The Gee Street Courthouse, 29-41 Gee Street,…

[miscarriage-of-justice-daily]

What Happened? A Timeline of the Baltovich Case

The legal proceedings of the Baltovich case were long and exhausting. Let’s dive into a timeline of the important events that took place…

June 19th, 1990: Elizabeth Bain disappears (1).

November 19th, 1990: Baltovich is arrested and charged with first- degree murder, despite no finding of Bain’s body (1).

February 4th, 1992: Baltovich’s first trial commences. The charge is dropped to second- degree murder in light of evidence brought forward by both the defence and the Crown (1).

March 31st, 1992: Baltovich is found guilty of second- degree murder charge, receiving a life sentence for the crime (1).

May 1992: Baltovich files an appeal with a new attorney as he believed his defence counsel in the first trial was incompetent. Baltovich also believed many ethical issues occurred in his first trial and addresses these in his formal request for an appeal (1).

May 16th, 1992: The appeal is filed with the Ontario Court of Appeal and Baltovich remains in jail until the scheduled hearing (1).

March 2000: Association in the Defence of the Wrongly Convicted agrees to take Baltovich’s case and requests release of Baltovich while his appeal is considered. By this point Baltovich had been imprisoned for over eight years. He is then released pending the appeal (1).

September 2004: Ontario Court of Appeal reviews the case and orders a new trial on the grounds that there were drastic errors in the first trial. However, they state an acquittal will not be automatically received and a jury must make a new formal decision (1).

April 2008: Second jury finds Baltovich not guilty of the new charge of second- degree murder minutes into the retrial and it is decided an inquiry into the case will not be conducted (1).

📷

Baltovich spent 18 years attempting to clear his name and was able to do so upon presenting a compelling case during his retrial. He presented the inadequacies of the first trial and showcased the fact that he was deprived of a fair and balanced charge/ trial.

Baltovich’s case is not the first miscarriage of justice and will certainly not be the last. The disastrous effects on Baltovich’s life from a wrongful conviction are ones that can never be undone. He spent 18 years attempting to clear his name and will now spend the rest of his life attempting to make up for the time he lost while behind bars (2). He legally cleared his name but restoring his reputation is a much harder job and Baltovich states that regardless of his newfound innocence by the court system, there will always be individuals who believe he is guilty (2). Baltovich highlighted the true heartbreak of his miscarriage of justice by stating “Wrongful accusations can be devastating to even the strongest person. I don’t think you ever really become you again.” (2). Throughout the entirety of the 18 years of the legal proceedings, Baltovich maintained his innocence and worked diligently to be acquitted of the charges wrongfully laid on him (1).

(1) CityNews. Robert Baltovich and the Elizabeth Bain Murder Trial: The Timeline - 2007 October 15th. https://toronto.citynews.ca/2007/10/15/robert-baltovich-and-the-elizabeth-bain-murder-trial-the-timeline/ (accessed March 14th 2021).

(2) CBC Canada. 􏰑'I don􏰁t think 􏰂you ev􏰀er really􏰂 become 􏰂you again'􏰁: Robert Baltovich on the court of public opinion- 2018 April 06. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/outintheopen/reputation-1.4589616/i-don-t-think-you-ever-really-become-you-again-robert-baltovich-on-the-court-of-public-opinion-1.4595226 (accessed February 2nd, 2021).

[surveycircle]

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[daveyone]

#UK #PublicLaw #FamilyLaw Cases in the context of #MiscarriagesOfJustice

[truthaholics]

#UK #PublicLaw #FamilyLaw Cases in the context of #MiscarriagesOfJustice

Argument & Critique:  Public Family Law cases in the context of Miscarriages of Justice ~ Dr Lauren Devine & Stephen Parker, January, 2015 [Article submitted to: Argument & Critique 19.11. 2014] Public Family Law cases in the context of Miscarriages of Justice Abstract: Public family law decisions in English courts are ostensibly made to serve the best interests of the child, whose interests…

[miscarriage-of-justice-daily]

Robert Baltovich: An Introduction to a Monumental Miscarriage of Justice

Robert Baltovich's life was changed forever the day his girlfriend, Elizabeth Bain, disappeared. A trip to the University of Toronto Scarborough campus by Bain on the 19th of June 1990 resulted in, not only her tragic disappearance but the wrongful conviction of Baltovich for a crime in which he did not commit. Baltovich was the victim of a miscarriage of justice grounded entirely in circumstantial evidence. The evidence presented throughout the legal proceedings focused on three key aspects: motive, opportunity, and consciousness of guilt following the offence (1). The prosecution argued that Bain was in fact attempting to discontinue her romantic relationship with Baltovich at the time of her disappearance. They presented the idea that this caused Baltovich to respond in a jealous rage, resulting in her death and therefore providing motive for the killing (1). Evidence presented by the prosecution in court stated that witnesses seen Baltovich and Bain sitting together on a picnic table around 5:40pm on the day of her disappearance and had also seen Baltovich driving Elizabeth's car on the 22nd of June, three days after her disappearance (1). These testimonies provided the prosecution with an argument of opportunity for Baltovich to commit the killing as loved ones of Bain believed she would be on the UTSC campus to "check out the tennis schedules" and thereby would not be concerned with her lack of presence throughout the day of her disappearance (1). Lastly, it was argued that Baltovich showed extreme guilt following the disappearance of Bain (1). This was used by the prosecution to argue grounds that Baltovich must have been overwhelmed by guilt since he must have been the one to kill Elizabeth (1).

Not only was the unreliability of witness testimony an ethical issue contributing to this miscarriage of justice but so was the use of hypnosis on witnesses in attempt to "strengthen" their memories of the events they claimed to have witnessed firsthand. Hypnosis on witnesses in criminal proceedings has been highly controversial and considered by the Supreme Court of Canada, in the R v Trochym case, as not generally admissible in court (2). Individuals are also seen to be more suggestible under hypnosis which can cause an increase in inaccurate memories in the same manner it may do so for accurate memories, if provoked by suggestive actions produced by the individual conducting the hypnosis (2).

Furthermore, it was argued by the defendant and his legal team that he had not received a fair trial -- a right afforded to him by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (2). It was shown that the trial judge promoted the Crown's case while simultaneously denigrated the defence's case (1). It was argued that the charge to the jury lacked fairness and balance (1).

Lastly, the case also involved the use of improper photo line- up techniques when interviewing Perez, leading to suggestive behaviours by officers conducting the photo line-up (2). It was admitted by Perez that she had selected the photo of Baltovich on a "process of elimination" as a photo array format was used in place of a sequential lineup format (2). Prior to taking part in the line- up, officers had suggestively told her that Baltovich's photo was present in the line-up (2). This was a significant ethical issue in Baltovich's miscarriage of justice as photo line-ups are to be conducted in a way in which members of the force do not have specific information regarding presence of certain individuals (2).

So, let's dive into the details of Robert Baltovich's miscarriage of justice that resulted from various ethical issues during the long and tiring legal process of the courts.

(1) Canadian Legal Information Institute. R. v. Baltovich. https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2004/2004canlii45031/2004canlii45031.html (accessed February 2nd 2021).

(2) Innocence Canada. Robert Baltovich. https://www.innocencecanada.com/exonerations/robert-baltovich/#ftn23 (accessed February 2nd, 2021).

[daveyone]

#UK #PublicLaw #FamilyLaw Cases in the context of #MiscarriagesOfJustice

[babettebombshell]

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A Dingo Ate My Baby: On August 17th of 1980, Linda Chamberlain lost her baby during a camping trip near Ayers Rock, Australia. She insisted that a dingo had taken her baby, but no one believed her... she was sentenced, and spent three years in jail, until her baby's nibbled jumper was found near a dingo's den. #babettebombshell #hauntedhotel #strangehistory #missingpersons #miscarriagesofjustice #adingoatemybaby #criminaljustice #victimadvocacy #victimsrights #fortean #xfiles