The Post Office’s immediate response to an ex-subpostmaster who took his own life was to line up a media lawyer, the Horizon IT Inquiry heard today.
The shocking disclosure came as former Post Office executive Angela van den Bogerd was grilled on the organisation’s response to the harrowing case of Martin Griffiths.
The former subpostmaster of 18 years was held responsible for around £100,000 in shortfalls and detailed the “devastating” strain in a July 2013 letter to the Post Office. He was also held culpable by the Post Office of the robbery of his branch in the same year and asked to pay over £7,000 to the organisation.
Mr Griffiths’s mother, Doreen, who was in her eighties at the time, pleaded with the Post Office months before her son’s death in a July 2013 letter. She said her son was facing “severe pressure” and detailed how she had been using her life savings in a desperate attempt to balance the books at the branch.
The Inquiry heard today Mr Griffiths deliberately walked in front of a bus in September 2013 – and died of his injuries three weeks later. While he was in a coma in hospital, campaigner Alan Bates wrote to officials including Ms Van den Bogerd accusing the Post Office of “thuggery” against “defenceless sub-postmasters”.
Mr Bates wrote: “I am aware of Martin’s case, and I know he was terrified to raise his shortages with POL [Post Office Limited] because of just this type of thing happening to him, but POL got him in the end. Regardless of what may or may not have occurred with him, why did the POL have to hound him to the point of trying to take his own life. Why?”
The Inquiry heard Mr Bates’s email was circulated among senior officials at the Post Office, including Ms Van den Bogerd and ex-chief executive Paula Vennells. One official replied: “Given the potential media element please can we line up a specialist media lawyer in case we need urgent advice this evening?”
Addressing Ms Van den Bogerd lead counsel to the Inquiry Jason Beer said: “So the immediate reaction you agree was not, is Martin Griffiths alright, what about his health, was it?
The ex-Post Office official, who was depicted by Coronation Street actress Katherine Kelly in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, added: “That is the immediate reaction. It’s on the email. I don’t think it’s the first thought. It was definitely a consideration in everything that we did around PR and the comms element. It was always a consideration”. The BBC said ex-subpostmasters watching the evidence session at the Inquiry centre shook their heads while one whispered “disgusting” under their breath.
