Exc: video taken by a migrant in the Rotherham hotel showing a masked man drawing his hand across his throat.
Migrants said they were “scared” as ten thugs marauded through the Rotherham hotel.
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Tom Witherow
18.5K posts
Tom Witherow
@TomWitherow
News and special projects @thetimes || Shortlisted for The Press Awards || Tips & stories 👉 My DMs are open; Signal/Proton on request.
London
Joined September 2010
- Scoop: Public inquiry into the Post Office scandal has obtained covert recordings of senior staff including Paula Vennells. Approx 80 tapes could be “damning”, an inquiry source tells me. Full story here as CBE debate rages #MrBatesVsThePostOffice 👇🏼 thetimes.co.uk/article/d4e930…
- New: Bernie Spofforth, 55, has been arrested on suspicion of stirring racial hatred by spreading a fake Muslim name for the suspect in the Southport attack. @thetimes are now naming her - tap to read 👇 and a 🧵 on why:
- Replying to @TomWitherowCheshire postmaster Martin Griffiths threw himself in front of a bus in 2013 after he and his family were forced to pay back £100,000 of phantom losses. His widow Gina was pressured into signing a gagging clause keeping the full story secret for years.
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00:00- EXC: An NHS worker stepped in front of a high speed train after the UK's biggest bookmaker allowed him to lose £12,500 in days. Josh Hall, 28, lost half his salary with Paddypower before he died. His mum said she ‘will always be disgusted’ with the gambling company. [1/14]
- “Nans against Nazis” - Pat, 74, has lived in Liverpool for 35 years. She’s with the counter-protesters in Liverpool, and says she has been “protesting against fascists since the National Front in the 1970s”.
- Happening now: Paula Vennells is accused of "deliberate, considered, and calculated" cover-up by postmaster lawyer. Ed Henry KC says "you are responsible for your own downfall" and says she has given a "craven self-serving account" in her evidence. Fireworks start here 👇
- I’ve been in the hotel to speak to migrants and thankfully they are all safe. Around ten rioters ran through the corridors shouting at migrants. One asylum seeker said they had been punched but no harm done. Another, who escaped the Middle East, said he’d seen much worse!Seriously, how have they been allowed to enter this hotel. What are they going to do to the people inside it?
- New: Post Office's top lawyer has refused to give evidence to the public inquiry and can not be compelled as she lives abroad. Inquiry counsel Jason Beer KC: “We're not going to hear from her, she lives abroad and won't cooperate”. Good reason why inquiries must be statutory.
- Every major online outlet has reported Woolworth's is returning to the high street. One call from me to owner Very's PR - he doesn't know a thing about it. Surely a story based on a Twitter account with 900 followers (and spelling mistakes) should be verified?
- Post Office inquiry today: I'm down at Aldwych House for the evidence of Robert Daily, the investigator in the late Peter Holmes's case. He has admitted he "erroneously" put his wife's education achievements on his CV when he re-applied for his job in 2008.
- Important point when writing about Horizon scandal: There are 4,000+ victims - not 'hundreds': ** 983 overturned convictions ** 2,750 HSS (lost money, weren't prosecuted) ** c. 500 more in #MrBatesVsThePostOffice group (exc OC) ** 100+ more came forward post-ITV. Total = 4,333The media continues to use the word “ hundreds “ when referring to victims of the post office scandal . There are 1000s, that are ruined . Please share . 2800 in my scheme alone @carolvorders @TomWitherow @nickwallis This is way bigger corporate.postoffice.co.uk/en/horizon-sca…
- New at Post Office inquiry: Angela Van den Bogerd admits she got her bonus in 2019 after "lying" to the High Court in the Bates trial. "So despite a finding in the High Court that basically you lied, you got your bonus?" Edward Henry KC tells the inquiry. "Yes," she says.
