Horizon Postal Service tragedy: UK: Most Unfortunate Development: As MSN (Reporter Steve Robson) reports: "Victims of the second IT scandal at the Post Office will have to wait years before their convictions will be heard in court, the miscarriages of justice watchdog has said. Karen Kneller stepped down from her position at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the watchdog which is evaluating Capture convictions, in the wake of stinging criticism of the organisation in recent years. It follows the resignation of Helen Pitcher, the former chair of the CCRC, in February. Only once the wrongful convictions have been quashed can the victims join compensation schemes, nearly 30 years since some suffered from the faulty IT software used by the Post Office."

BACKGROUND: From a previous  (Jan. 11, 2024) post of this Blog: Horizon "Post Office scandal: U.K. Major (Welcome) Development: The Independent (Reporters Kate Devlin and Archie Mitchell) reports that a TV drama has forced Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to announce a new law exonerating 736 convicted subpostmasters…"The scandal began when Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon accounting software made it appear as though money was missing from Post Office branches. Subpostmasters were forced to pay back many thousands of pounds, while hundreds were convicted based on the faults. Despite warnings from subpostmasters, the Post Office was prosecuting those caught up in the scandal as recently as 2015. Mr Sunak said they were victims of “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation's history”.

https://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2024/01/united-kingdom-post-office-scandal.html-

-----------------------------------------------------------

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: 

STORY:  "Captive victims are years away from wrongful convictions being overturned," by Reporter Steve Robson (Northern Correspondent for @theipaper), published by MSN, on July 5, 2025.

GIST: "Victims of the second IT scandal at the Post Office will have to wait years before their convictions will be heard in court, the miscarriages of justice watchdog has said.

Karen Kneller stepped down from her position at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the watchdog which is evaluating Capture convictions, in the wake of stinging criticism of the organisation in recent years.

It follows the resignation of Helen Pitcher, the former chair of the CCRC, in February.

Only once the wrongful convictions have been quashed can the victims join compensation schemes, nearly 30 years since some suffered from the faulty IT software used by the Post Office.

The CCRC told The i Paper it could be “years” before they make a decision on whether Capture cases can be put before the Court of Appeal.

The independent body, which is funded by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), has been accused of mishandling a number of high-profile cases including Andrew Malkinson, who was wrongly jailed for rape for 17 years, and Peter Sullivan, who spent 38 years in jail for a murder he didn’t commit.

Dame Vera Baird, who took over as interim chair last month, said: “The CCRC has a vital role to play in the criminal justice system, but confidence in the organisation has been badly damaged. 

“Confidence in our work must be restored.”

Watchdog has had Capture cases for 18 months

The CCRC has also been under the spotlight over the Post Office scandal – the government made the unprecedented decision to use Parliamentary legislation to overturn the convictions of 900 sub-postmasters because it was taking so long for the watchdog to get cases to the Court of Appeal. 

The CCRC currently has 30 Post Office cases which pre-date the notorious Horizon computer system and are believed to relate to an earlier piece of software called Capture.

Such delays in having convictions overturned have been likened to a form of torture by Capture victim Steve Marston, who was wrongly convicted in 1998.

He added: “There’s people’s lives at stake here and I think they need to take that into account, reset their values, do what they are there to do rather than delaying things for nonsensical reasons.

“I think they need to realise that each file they are looking at is a person’s life. 

“I think the whole culture needs to change. It’s not fair to keep everybody hanging, it’s a form of Chinese torture.”

After months of reporting by The i Paper on claims of wrongful convictions, the Government ordered independent consultants Kroll to carry out a review of Capture which found the software was faulty.

A new compensation scheme is due to open in the autumn but former sub-postmasters and their families who were criminally prosecuted cannot apply unless their convictions have been quashed.

‘There’s people’s lives at stake here’

Although the the CCRC has had some Capture cases for at least 18 months, The i Paper understands it has not yet started taking direct statements from applicants.

It is understood the organisation has promised to provide an update to the Capture victims this summer.

Mr Marston, who was convicted of theft and false accounting, is among those to have applied to have his case referred back to the Court of Appeal but said progress has been slow.

“We’ve not had many updates, we’ve been chasing them,” he said.

“They have been dragging their feet – I think, like the Post Office, there’s been a problem with the culture.”

Mr Marston said he believes Kneller’s resignation “shows that the new chair [Baird] definitely means business when she says that she’s going to clean house. “

The Capture software was rolled out to Post Office branches starting in 1992

‘It’s like pushing treacle uphill’

Juliet Shardlow, whose mum Patricia Owen was also prosecuted by the Post Office in 1998, has also been left frustrated by the pace of developments at the CCRC. 

“It’s really demoralising, you feel like you’re pushing treacle uphill,” she said. 

Ms Owen, who died in 2003, always maintained her innocence and believed Capture was to blame for the accounting shortfalls at her branch in Kent. 

She even commissioned an IT expert, Adrian Montagu, to inspect her computer and the software and he agreed it was likely to produce “gibberish”.

Mr Montagu was due to appear as a witness at her trial but, for reasons which remain a mystery, he was never called to give evidence. 

Now aged 77, Mr Montagu is retired but has come forward with a copy of his original report dating back almost 30 years, and told The i Paper he is still prepared to give evidence if required.

“They have the report. If the Kroll report said Capture was faulty, and that is enough for the Government to start giving out compensation, why is not enough to take cases to the Court of Appeal?” said Ms Shardlow.\

“They’ve had mum’s case since January 2024, what more does it take?”

‘Entire leadership at the CCRC needs to be replaced’

In a statement, the CCRC told The i Paper it could take “years” before it decides whether Capture convictions can be overturned 

“A review can take many months, even years, particularly when convictions date back decades,” a spokesperson said. 

“Tracking down material relating to convictions from many years ago is challenging. It might no longer exist.

“It is only relatively recently that the CCRC has become involved in reviewing pre-Horizon cases.”

The CCRC added: “We have received applications regarding 31 convictions which pre-date Horizon. 

“Of these, one review has been completed and a committee of three commissioners decided not to refer the case for an appeal because there was independent evidence of theft.

“Twenty-seven cases are assigned to Case Review Managers and under active review, and three cases, which were received only recently, are in the preparatory stages.

“The CCRC is in regular contact with Post Office Limited (POL) to obtain evidence. We have issued section 17 notices requiring them to produce material and we have received some case papers in most, but not yet all, cases.” 

Amanda Pearce, who is CCRC casework operations director, has been appointed interim chief executive.

A public inquiry has been ordered to examine the botched handling of Mr Malkinson’s case which was twice knocked back twice by the CCRC until his legal team carried out crucial DNA testing that was then repeated by the commission and led to his release.

A review found that he could have been released 10 years earlier if the CCRC had obtained new DNA evidence as early as 2009, and thousands of cases are being reviewed in the wake of the bungled handling of the case.

In May, the Commons Justice Committee had warned the position of the then CCRC chief executive, Kneller, was no longer tenable.

MPs said in a report it followed “unpersuasive” evidence from her on the CCRC’s challenges and response to public criticisms in April, and concerns on the performance of the review body.

Mr Malkinson said Kneller “failed me as I battled to clear my name”."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/news/content/ar-AA1I3dY1?ocid=sapphireappshare

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic"  section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

SEE BREAKDOWN OF  SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG,  AT THE LINK BELOW:  HL:

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985

———————————————————————————————

FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

—————————————————————————————————

FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions.   They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Barry Morphew: CBS News (Reporters Paul LaRosa and Elena DiFiore) reports that according to a new indictment, Suzanne Morphew's body was moved at least twice after she was murdered, noting that: "After the initial charges against Barry Morphew were dismissed, authorities continued to search for her body and on September 22, 2023, Suzanne Morphew's remains were found in and around a "shallow, clandestine grave … less than an hour south of the Morphew residence," according to the indictment. "The majority of her bones were recovered," the indictment states, and a board-certified anthropologist, a botanist, and an entomologist were brought in to analyze the remains and concluded that "it was unlikely Suzanne decomposed from a fresh body to a skeleton at this location."

QUOTE OF THE DAY: ""This case is incredibly unique," says Aya Gruber, now a law professor at the University of Southern California School of Law. "When youstarted to dig a little bit deeper, nothing is what it seems."

Gruber studied thousands of pages of public documents from the prosecutor, investigators and defense attorneys.

------------------------------------------------------

PASSAGE OF THE  DAY: "Dan "Dan R" Ridenour, who lives in the Salida area of Colorado where the Morphews lived when Suzanne Morphew went missing, is the news director and operations manager of the Heart of the Rockies Radio. He told "48 Hours" that it was hard to make sense of the indictment's allegations against Barry Morphew. "Why would he do that?" Ridenour asked. "Why would he move the body?" For one thing, Ridenour noted that Barry Morphew has been under heavy scrutiny since Suzanne Morphew was reported missing. "There is not a more recognizable face in Salida than Barry Morphew," Ridenour said. "He's going to take that chance and drive 70 miles to the south and dig a shallow grave? There are too many questions." But the indictment is unequivocal: Suzanne Morphew's bones were moved to that location after her body had decomposed elsewhere, meaning it had to have been moved at least twice after her murder. "She was not initially killed in the San Luis Valley," Ridenour said. "She was moved there. That was not her first grave."

---------------------------------------------------

STORY: Suzanne Morphew's body was moved  at least twice after she was murdered, according to new indictment,  published by  CBS News (Reporters Paul LaRosa and Elena DiFiore),  on July 3, 2025.

GIST: "Barry Morphew, a longtime suspect in his wife's disappearance and murder, was arrested in Arizona on June 20, 2025, two days after he was indicted on a first-degree murder charge in the case of his wife Suzanne Morphew's death. This was the second time Barry Morphew has been arrested and charged in her death. The initial charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning authorities reserved the right to charge him again.

The latest grand jury indictment alleges new details that are surprising even to those who've been following the case since Suzanne Morphew disappeared on Mother's Day, 2020. Barry Morphew has long stated he had nothing to do with his wife's murder, and the couple's two adult daughters have stood by their father.

After the initial charges against Barry Morphew were dismissed, authorities continued to search for her body and on September 22, 2023, Suzanne Morphew's remains were found in and around a "shallow, clandestine grave … less than an hour south of the Morphew residence," according to the indictment.

"The majority of her bones were recovered," the indictment states, and a board-certified anthropologist, a botanist, and an entomologist were brought in to analyze the remains and concluded that "it was unlikely Suzanne decomposed from a fresh body to a skeleton at this location." 

Dan "Dan R" Ridenour, who lives in the Salida area of Colorado where the Morphews lived when Suzanne Morphew went missing, is the news director and operations manager of the Heart of the Rockies Radio. He told "48 Hours" that it was hard to make sense of the indictment's allegations against Barry Morphew. "Why would he do that?" Ridenour asked. "Why would he move the body?"

For one thing, Ridenour noted that Barry Morphew has been under heavy scrutiny since Suzanne Morphew was reported missing. "There is not a more recognizable face in Salida than Barry Morphew," Ridenour said. "He's going to take that chance and drive 70 miles to the south and dig a shallow grave? There are too many questions."

But the indictment is unequivocal: Suzanne Morphew's bones were moved to that location after her body had decomposed elsewhere, meaning it had to have been moved at least twice after her murder. "She was not initially killed in the San Luis Valley," Ridenour said. "She was moved there. That was not her first grave."

In addition, tests revealed that in Suzanne Morphew's bone marrow, the chief toxicologist found a mixture of three chemicals known as BAM. The compound is used to tranquilize wildlife and, the indictment noted, that Barry Morphew has admitted using those drugs to tranquilize deer. He had even admitted to authorities that, one month before Suzanne Morphew disappeared, he had used those chemicals to tranquilize a deer near the breezeway of the Morphew residence.

The chemical compound takes several minutes to cause "sedation" the indictment states and tests found "that [Suzanne's] death was not immediate following BAM exposure because Suzanne Morphew's body had begun to metabolize the drug before she died."

Authorities have long suspected that Barry Morphew chased Suzanne Morphew around their house after somehow injecting her with the BAM compound. According to texts, Suzanne Morphew had told Barry Morphew she wanted to divorce "civilly" and it was later revealed she was having a two-year affair with a former schoolmate.

The indictment links Barry Morphew to purchases of the BAM compound which is a highly controlled drug. It concludes: "The prescription records show that when Suzanne Morphew disappeared, only one private citizen living in that entire area of the state had access to BAM: Barry Morphew."

"48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant updates the case in "The Suzanne Morphew Case: Nothing is What It Seems," airing Saturday, July 5 at 9/8c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

"This case is incredibly unique," says Aya Gruber, now a law professor at the University of Southern California School of Law. "When you started to dig a little bit deeper, nothing is what it seems."

Gruber studied thousands of pages of public documents from the prosecutor, investigators and defense attorneys.

Suzanne Morphew was reported missing on May 10, 2020. She'd been alone that day because her daughters, Macy, 16, and Mallory, 20, were off on a church-sponsored camping trip and planned to return home later that Mother's Day.

After Suzanne Morphew was officially reported missing by a neighbor, investigators began to examine Barry Morphew's story. Friends and relatives told investigators that the marriage was troubled, and agents found a deleted text from Suzanne to Barry on his phone that read: "I'm done. I could care less what you're up to and have been for years. We just need to figure this out civilly."

But 10 days after Suzanne Morphew disappeared, agents were pulled in a different direction when they found a so-called spy pen belonging to Suzanne. The spy pen has a long battery life and is designed to look and write like an ordinary pen.

But it has one extra feature: it is voice-activated and records conversations. Suzanne Morphew had acquired it, she told a friend, because she suspected Barry Morphew was having an affair and she hoped to use the pen to gather evidence. But the plan backfired.

Investigators listened to what the pen had recorded and, although there was no evidence of Barry Morphew having an affair, they say they heard "intimate" conversations between Suzanne Morphew and someone named Jeff.

It was another twist in a case filled with them.

Without knowing who Jeff was or his location when Suzanne Morphew went missing, they could not eliminate him as a person or interest. It took FBI agents six months before they uncovered his identity: Jeff Libler, a man both Suzanne and Barry Morphew knew from their Alexandria, Indiana, high school. Libler and Suzanne Morphew had had a one-time fling after graduation, and she'd reached out to him in 2018 after the Morphews moved to Colorado with a Facebook message that read simply: "Howdy stranger."

"And from that moment they had talked almost every single day nonstop," said Ashley Franco, a former reporter for KKTV, the CBS affiliate in Colorado Springs, who has covered the story from the beginning.

That was enough to ignite a nearly two-year love affair. Libler had a wife and six children. He lived in Michigan and claimed to be there with his family on the day Suzanne Morphew vanished.

Agents eventually discovered the lovers had spoken to each other for dozens of hours, often communicating via secret accounts on WhatsApp and LinkedIn. Libler also admitted that they met for romantic rendezvous in New Orleans, Florida, Texas, Michigan and Indiana.

After Suzanne Morphew disappeared in May 2020, Libler did not contact authorities. Instead, agents say, he deleted the accounts where he had communicated with Suzanne Morphew.

"What he did was delete all his social media accounts that he had used to communicate with Suzanne," said Gruber. "He's got a lot to lose if revelations of this affair come out."

Libler reportedly told agents he did not want to tarnish Suzanne Morphew's memory, but he also told them he worried that he'd lose his wife, children and job. He also worried he might be considered a suspect. "He asks the agents, 'Am I a target?'" said Gruber.

After agents confronted him, he did cooperate, providing a sample of his DNA and passwords to the deleted accounts. Investigators eventually were able to retrace the couple's steps and recovered texts by tapping into the iCloud accounts of Libler and Suzanne Morphew.

Libler was able to provide receipts for a home goods store he'd visited in Michigan on the day Suzanne vanished and he was eventually cleared.

Investigators still had their suspicions about Barry Morphew. They never uncovered any evidence that he was having an affair, but investigators found his actions on that Mother's Day weekend to be suspicious.They asked Barry Morphew why his phone seemed to be pinging all around his house on the day before Mother's Day and he told them he must have been out shooting chipmunks, which he said were a constant nuisance at the house.

It was perhaps the world's first chipmunk alibi, but Barry Morphew stood by it, saying he'd shot 85 chipmunks in the two years he owned that Colorado house.

"And then that confession to shooting chipmunks becomes a major piece of incriminating evidence against him," said Gruber.

Van Sant asked why. "Because [agents are] saying, 'Well, you know, now he's admitting to having run around the house. And this is a ridiculous explanation, so it must be the explanation of a guilty person,'" Gruber replied.

What's more, there was no evidence of any chipmunk shootings around the house and neighbors did not recall hearing any type of disturbance during that period of time.

Cases sometimes turn on the smallest of things and, in this case, agents seized upon just such a small item.

Agents had found a small clear plastic cap in the family's dryer that they believed was from a syringe used to inject chemicals into a tranquilizer dart. Barry Morphew acknowledged he knew how to inject chemicals into a dart and that he'd shot many deer for trophies and so he could get their antlers. His garage was filled with deer heads and a pile of antlers. However, there was no working tranquilizer gun found in the home and authorities say Barry's DNA was not on that plastic cap.

Even so, investigators developed a theory that Barry Morphew had shot Suzanne Morphew with a tranquilizer gun and then chased her around the house before she passed out. They found a door frame that was broken and suspected there had been a confrontation.

Agents also tapped into a new investigative tool called digital vehicle forensics. They pulled data from his Ford truck's many computers and got the truck to "talk" to them. They learned that when Barry Morphew said he was sleeping, the truck's doors were opening and closing.

He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in May 2021. Barry eventually pleaded not guilty."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/suzanne-morphew-barry-morphew-colorado-murder-indictment-48-hours/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic"  section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

SEE BREAKDOWN OF  SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG,  AT THE LINK BELOW:  HL:

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985

———————————————————————————————

FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

—————————————————————————————————

FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions.   They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;

-------------------------------------------------------------------