Hull Daily Mail

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
Chazz Rheinhold said:
now that’s bloody heartbreaking



Popular Bransholme postmaster 'wrongly jailed' for £59,000 fraud set to have conviction overturned
The Post Office has indicated it will not contest a number of appeals against conviction
A former Bransholme postmaster has spoken of her relief after a 14-year battle to overturn her false accountingconviction looks to be successful.

Janet Skinner, 49, was a hard-working and popular postmaster in Bransholme when money started going missing.

She called for an audit and was immediately suspended in May 2006. Less than a year later she was handed a nine-month jail sentence. Read more.

But now she, and 30 other former employees, have been told the Post Office will not contest the appeals to have their convictions overturned.

A BBC Panorama programme earlier this year showed strong evidence the Post Office's Horizon computer system had glitches which made cash 'disappear'.

Now, the Post Office announcement makes it almost certain that more than 30 cases will be quashed, although Court of Appeal judges must decide and the Post Office can seek a retrial. More cases remain under scrutiny.

Janet has expressed her relief at the latest news: “I received the email this morning and I have been taken aback by it all. I have waited nearly 14 years for this. The relief I feel is difficult to explain.

“That email I received is worth so much to me. It means I will no longer have to worry about that conviction.

“It is a sense of vindication after all these years and now I can move on with my life.”

You must log in or register to see images

Neil Hudgell has assembled a strong legal team to take on the Horizon IT injustices
The appeal still needs to go before a judge and a hearing will be held on November 11 but it is not clear if the appeals will be upheld at that point.

Hull-based Hudgell Solicitors represents 34 of the former Post Office employees – although not Janet and says 33 of those will not be contested.

Solicitor Neil Hudgel said: “For the Post Office to concede defeat and not oppose these cases is a landmark moment, not only for these individuals, but in time, potentially hundreds of others. The door to justice has been opened.

“It is of course now a matter for the Post Office as to whether it would seek any retrials, but we have been given no indication of that happening

“We are today obviously delighted for the people we represent. Clearing their names has been their driving goal from day one, as their reputations and livelihoods were so unfairly destroyed.

“Therefore, while today we celebrate, we must never forget that these people endured years of suffering, and how these allegations and convictions affected not only the individuals themselves, but their loved ones too.

“We have secured what amounts to a clear admission from the Post Office that people were convicted of crimes on the basis of unsafe and unreliable evidence.

"That is truly significant and we’ll now fight for every other unsafe conviction to be overturned, buoyed by today’s Post Office back down.”

You must log in or register to see images

Former Hull postmaster Janet Skinner on the Panorama programme (Image: BBC)
Despite denying she ever did anything wrong Janet, of Beverley Road, was advised by her solicitor Karl Turner, now the Hull East MP, to plead guilty to false accounting so the theft charge would be dropped.

She and Mr Turner believed this would ensure she avoided jail. But at Hull Crown Court in February 2007, the judge decided the £59,000 involved was too big a sum, particularly as it involved people’s pensions, and she was imprisoned for nine months.

She previously told Hull Live: “At Hull Crown Court in February 2007 I was not expecting to go to jail but the judge said that because I has stolen people’s pensions he had no choice.

“Even when I was being cuffed I didn’t know what was happening. I thought the sentence was suspended.

“I was living in a surreal world in prison. They say everyone pleads their innocence inside but I knew I had done nothing. I was on suicide watch for three weeks.

“I was devastated. I was sent to jail for something I hadn’t done but no one would believe me.

“Leaving my kids behind was the worst part. My daughter was 17 and my son was 14. On that first night in prison I was given a phone call.

“I called my family but my daughter would not speak to me, she was too upset. It had a profound effect on them."

Janet was let out after two and a half months but the trauma was still not over.

“There was an £11,500 compensation order,” she explained. “I had sold my house and assumed they got the money from that as I received nothing.

“But, in 2008, I read in the Hull Daily Mail that there was a warrant out for my arrest.

You must log in or register to see images

Janet Skinner outside the post office in north Bransholme back in 2005
“I immediately rang the warrant office who told me I hadn’t paid. It turned out there was a large penalty for selling the property when there was much of the mortgage still to pay so the compensation order hadn’t been paid.

“I was back in the cells and appeared at court in Sheffield. I was told I faced five years in jail if I didn’t pay.

“Thankfully, they realised I didn’t have the means to pay and it was set aside until I could afford to pay it.

“Two weeks after I ended up in Hull Royal Infirmary with a stress-related spinal disorder which left me with no feeling from the neck down.

“My immune system was really low and my body began to attack itself. I was told I may never walk again but I fought hard to recover. However, I have been left with permanent disabilities.

“I have had to learn to live with what has happened. There is no point in looking into the past."

Find the latest crimes in your area
Hundreds of postmasters were accused after the Horizon system showed cash shortfalls at their branches.

But the BBC Panorama investigation revealed managers knew problems with Horizon could make money disappear.

The Post Office says it has always accepted its legal obligations, has taken advice throughout and is now conducting a further review about disclosure.

It says it deeply regrets not doing more to investigate the risk that computer bugs may have been responsible for some of the shortfalls that occurred.

The Post Office is expected to make a statement later.
Click to expand...
Absolutely ****ing appalling thing to happen.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shag
Chazz Rheinhold said:
She doesn’t even seem that bitter
I mean a prison sentence ffs
She must be in for a big payout
Still doesn’t take back what she has lost
Click to expand...
I'm not so sure. She went to prison for pleading guilty to false accounting, not for the theft of the money. There may be more to that than is being reported.

You really would exoect the Post Office to get anally raped for this though. Maybe just not for this lady.
 
Anal Frank Fingers said:
I'm not so sure. She went to prison for pleading guilty to false accounting, not for the theft of the money. There may be more to that than is being reported.

You really would exoect the Post Office to get anally raped for this though. Maybe just not for this lady.
Click to expand...

The Post Office has already agreed £58m in compensation for those wrongly accused/sacked/convicted.
 
Blimey, how rough was it last night?


'Mayday' call out to save man stranded in Hull Marina

The emergency helicopter was called out.

The boat was located with the assistance of Coastguard Rescue Helicopter in challenging conditions.

The rescue crew said the man had a problem with his engine leaving him stranded in the Marina in bad conditions.

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/new...-news/mayday-man-stranded-hull-marina-4623860


Surely he was in difficulties elsewhere, and they towed him to the Marina?
 
  • Like
Reactions: dennisboothstash
“Mason and his best friend Steven Duffield, 10, were( bit )by a car“ in Anlaby Road,how can a newspaper spell such tragic headlines so wrongly ,that is beyond acceptability. This is just shockingly poor journalism does no one check or proof read anything at this rag.
 
For heaven's sake, we're 8 games in, joint second in the table and HDM come out with stuff like this. What are they on?

Peterborough United secure huge comeback win at Hull City, to dent Tigers' promotion hopes
 
Plum said:
For heaven's sake, we're 8 games in, joint second in the table and HDM come out with stuff like this. What are they on?

Peterborough United secure huge comeback win at Hull City, to dent Tigers' promotion hopes
Click to expand...
They're obviously reading this City forum regularly for instant trending momentum. :emoticon-0100-smile
 
Anal Frank Fingers said:
I'm not so sure. She went to prison for pleading guilty to false accounting, not for the theft of the money. There may be more to that than is being reported.

You really would expect the Post Office to get anally raped for this though. Maybe just not for this lady.
Click to expand...
.Someone brought me a copy of last Tuesday scoop. Full page second page in devoted to a woman who talks to a parrot and makes a donkey smile.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Howdentiger2 and dennisboothstash
Urika Peece. said:
.Someone brought me a copy of last Tuesday scoop. Full page second page in devoted to a woman who talks to a parrot and makes a donkey smile.
Click to expand...

Oooh, ooh, an excuse for an old joke. I'll trim it back.

Bloke says to a farmer, "I bet you £100 I can make your donkey laugh just by whispering in its ear"

The farmer took the bet, our man whispers in its ear, and the donkey creased up like a mash advert.

Our man asks the farmer if if he wants to win his money back, as he reckons he can make the donkey cry, just by showing it a picture, so it's bet on.

Our man shows the donkey a picture, and its blubbing away. The farmer pays up, which okay, is less likely than an over emotional donkey, but it is just a joke.

The farmer is curious, and asks what the gut whispered to make it laugh. "I told it my nob was bigger than his"

"Hmm, so what was the picture of? " asks the farmer. "My nob, proving my claim" sayeth our man.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back