A new book will examine the Post Office scandal and shine spotlight on how legal professionals failed to prevent one of the country’s most widespread miscarriages of justice.
Indefensible, written by Colchester-born legal journalist John Hyde, will explore the role that lawyers played in the wrongful convictions and claims involving hundreds of sub-postmasters.
The book will be released on September 15 and will include a launch tour in London, Manchester and Colchester.
Mr Hyde, 44, said: "It struck me that, actually, there was a group of people who weren’t influenced by the finances of the company and they weren’t tech wizards and they weren’t the IT people.
"And that was the lawyers.
"The lawyers were supposed to be the gatekeepers to make sure that the Post Office carried on thinking ethically and doing the right thing by its staff."
The Post Office scandal led the UK Post Office, between 1999 and 2015, to wrongly pursue and convict over 900 sub-postmasters for non‑existent financial shortfalls.
The fault was due to bugs and defects in Fujitsu’s Horizon IT system.
The book argues that, despite a duty to act independently and ethically, the Post Office’s legal team prioritised protecting the corporation over their professional obligations to the court and the accused individuals.
It describes how lawyers failed to disclose crucial evidence about Horizon’s unreliability.
Mr Hyde said: "This isn't just an isolated thing. This isn't just a few bad apples.
"This goes to the heart of the legal profession.
"I think everybody needs to know about this, lawyers and non-lawyers."
He points out that legal professionals were aware of serious problems with the IT system yet continued to pursue prosecutions and withheld key information from the defence.
"In one case, they found out about bugs in the system the day before trial and still didn’t disclose it," he said.
"That woman was found guilty, went to court while pregnant and gave birth with an electronic tag on.
"None of that needed to happen if the lawyers had just done their job."
One of the key moments that inspired Mr Hyde to write the book was a call from Lee Castleton, a former sub-postmaster who was bankrupted after the Post Office sued him for £25,000 based on Horizon data.
Mr Hyde, a former Holland Park Primary pupil, said: "Lee told me, ‘You have to write about the lawyers.’"
Mr Hyde began his journalism career at newspapers including the Clacton and Frinton Gazette, Harwich & Manningtree Standard, and Colchester Gazette, where he developed a strong foundation in community reporting and local news.
After studying history at the University of York, he went on to work in journalism in East London before transitioning into legal journalism around 15 years ago.
Mr Hyde currently works for The Law Society Gazette.
This will be his first book, which was written alongside his full-time job.
Mr Hyde hopes it will reach a wide audience and help explain how systems can fail and how they might be improved.
"This scandal is a really sad reflection on the whole profession," he said.
"If we can try to minimise the chances of this kind of thing happening again, then we’ve done something right."
The Colchester book launch will be held on September 30 at The Minories and is free to attend, but space is limited to around 120 people.
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