Former Norfolk sub-postmaster says victims of Post Office scandal should be cleared of any wrongdoing
Duncan Baker's now an MP in Norfolk
A former postmaster, who now works as a Norfolk MP, is telling us that those wrongly convicted in the Post Office Horizon scandal should be cleared of any wrongdoing.
It's as both the Government and Labour call for the over 700 victims of the Post Office Scandal to compensated quickly- after they were wrongly convicted of fraud.
"We'll never be able to right all the wrongs"
Duncan Baker represents North Norfolk:
"No amount of compensation will ever make up for what some people have been through. We know that four people have lost their lives in relation to this situation. Other people have passed away, naturally.
"We'll never be able to right all the wrongs but this is about making sure justice comes as fast as possible.
"The Post Office has its own ability to seek out prosecutions - that needs to be changed and taken away from the body. Clearly you could say that they abused that privilege of being able to do that. It's not good enough that they didn't believe people and just went ahead with their own prosecution.
"They just weren't belief and that's unforgivable"
"When these workers turned around and rang the helpline and said 'Our books are not balancing. please can you help us', those at the Post Office said 'you're the first person to call us about this issue'. Well that's a total lie, we know there were thousands of people having these issues.
"We just have to recognise that these people are often pillars of our community but they just weren't believed and that's unforgivable.
"All we can do now is make sure we put the parameters in place, so something like this never happens again in the UK."
What's the Government said?
Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Alex Chalk KC said:
“This was an appalling miscarriage of justice.
“I am concerned that many sub-postmasters remain convicted, and I am exploring what lawful options are available to speed up and secure justice.”