Ex-Post Office lawyer was given industry award as postmasters fought justice

08 June 2024 , 21:17

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Last week Jane MacLeod was questioned why she was not appearing at the inquiry (Image: BBC/UNPIXS)

The Post Office’s former chief lawyer was handed an industry award as sub-postmasters fought for justice.

Jane MacLeod accepted the prize at The Lawyer Awards in 2019. The industry bash came as 555 innocent sub-postmasters anxiously waited for a settlement.

Tonight, sub-postmistress Seema Misra, who was pregnant when she was wrongly locked up for theft, called for the award to be “snatched away”.

Seema, 48, from Surrey, said: “It is sad and shows her true colours. She should have refused to accept the praise and instead accepted accountability.”

Mrs MacLeod, 64, sparked anger last week when she refused to appear in person or via video link at the Horizon inquiry.

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The scandal was dramatised in hit ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office (Getty Images)

The Post Office’s general counsel from 2015 to 2019 replied “no comment” when reporters confronted her at her home in Sydney, Australia. Instead, she submitted a lengthy witness statement, apologising to Horizon victims.

The Aussie lawyer left the UK in 2020 and returned home with her company director husband Greg and two sons.

Last month, inquiry chairman Sir Wyn Williams said he wanted to hear Mrs MacLeod’s evidence – but she would not play ball, despite an offer of free flights and accommodation.

Saskia Rowlands