00:00And now I'm joined by Simon Edgecombe and Matt Ramsden, the senior editor of Kent Online.
00:05So, Matt, we've got some context there, but how did you actually get involved with this story?
00:10Yeah, it's quite a strange start to the story, really, Kristen, because Simon wrote to us asking whether he could
00:16access our archives from March 1983
00:18just to see if we'd had a court reporter in court at the time, so he could have evidence to
00:24prove to people that a court case did take part and take place
00:28and he was in court when he said he was.
00:31I got the email sent to me because the person who had it didn't know what to do with it,
00:35and I looked at Simon's email
00:38and I thought, this sounds quite interesting. Rather than respond by email, let me give him a call and see
00:43what it's all about.
00:43And so if we take ourselves back then to when it all happened, what went through your mind when you
00:49found out that you were going to prison?
00:51Oh, utter shock. I'm laughing. I don't know why I'm laughing.
00:54It was quite shocking.
00:55It was... Did I hear that correctly?
00:58I mean, it was honestly... Because I wasn't expecting it, it seemed impossible.
01:04I tried to put myself in the place of the jury and did that and thought, well, I'll be going
01:09home in a minute.
01:11But the more the case went on, the more I could see it was corrupt.
01:15But I can't fight their corruption.
01:19What have you been able to do so far and what have you found?
01:21OK. Well, we've written three stories so far about Simon's case and we've used social media, we've used podcasts, we've
01:29used all the tools available to us to spread the message far and wide.
01:33And I'm pleased to say that we've managed to track down Jane, who still lives in Kent.
01:38We're not going to name her because she's quite a private person, doesn't want that to happen and we respect
01:43that.
01:44So we tracked her down and had a chat with her.
01:46There's another key witness who we've tracked down to East Anglia as well.
01:50But perhaps most interestingly for us and for Simon is that we tracked down a guy called Michael, who was
01:57a paper boy at the time and remembers being paid money out of the post office till,
02:02which proves what Simon's been saying all along, that the till was used as a private finance device rather than
02:08just for government cash as it was meant to be.
02:10There is even an ex-policeman who's come forward to say that he recalls when he was in the police
02:17force that the post office were actually trying to pry people away from the police force to go and work
02:22for them as investigators.
02:24And one of the reasons for doing that and getting people away was the bonuses that were paid on successful
02:31prosecutions.
02:32But you're still looking for people who can potentially help as well.
02:35Yeah, so the next step for Simon is speaking to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which has the power to
02:41investigate miscarriages of justice.
02:43And they've got some great powers and they can actually go in and look at archives and all sorts and
02:47turn up all sorts of things.
02:49But from our point of view, to help with this, we're looking for some people we think were involved who
02:54might have some key evidence.
02:56A couple who worked at the Raynham Road, the station road shop in Raynham at the time, which the post
03:01office was contained inside.
03:03They were there. They knew what was going on. We're trying to find them.
03:07They lived in nearby Lower Raynham Road. So if they're still knocking about, it'd be great to get a hold
03:12of them.
03:12And anybody, anybody at all involved in the court case who was there for the one day trial on March
03:1814th, 1983.
03:19I know it's a long time ago. It's a lot to remember, but it's quite a distinctive case.
03:24So I'm hoping if you were a juror, a member of staff in the court, or even the solicitor who
03:29represented Simon, please come forward and let us know.
03:33Even small snippets like the policeman, like Michael, who saw the story.
03:38It's all helping. It is all helping.
03:41And we will eventually, I hope, win with your help as well.
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