How can they sleep, asks Post Office reporter

The TV drama about the Post Office scandal has ignited interest in those involved - including victim Noel Thomas, a former Anglesey postmaster

"It's beyond me how someone can sleep at night - watching people being sent to prison and suspecting - or knowing - there was something wrong with the computer systems."

Journalist Sion Tecwyn has strong opinions on the scandal that has engulfed the Post Office and led to hundreds of people wrongly prosecuted, some jailed, and others taking their own lives.

The former BBC reporter was one of the first to shine a light on what has unfolded over the last two decades, as he focused on the case of one sub-postmaster on Anglesey - Noel Thomas.

Mr Thomas was just one of those falsely accused of stealing cash or fiddling their books - when all along it was the fault of the Horizon system installed at thousands of post offices across the UK.

Journalist Sion Tecwyn and former sub-postmaster Noel Thomas have known each other for many years

"I'd known Noel for a long time - probably since the 1990s," said Sion, who first came across him when the then sub-postmaster was also a county councillor on the island.

"He was the best kind of councillor you could get, fingers on the pulse, he really wanted to help people all the time - so he was a good contact for me."

In 2005 he had a tip that something was "going on" with the post office in the village of Gaerwen.

"I gave Noel a ring and he answered the phone and he was really shocked.

"I was [asking] what's happening, and he said 'I can't really tell you - but money's gone missing' and put the phone down quite quickly."

In conversations over the coming weeks and months, Sion said the story never changed.

"He was saying that he definitely hadn't stolen the money.

"So when the court case came in 2006, when he turns up to Caernarfon Crown Court, I'm expecting him to plead not guilty.

"All of a sudden he's asked how he pleaded to false accounting - which wasn't the original charge - and he says guilty.

"I was gobsmacked."

Noel Thomas was led away to prison after being convicted of false accounting over £48,000 in missing cash

In the years since, Noel has explained how he had been given the chance to plead to a lesser charge at the last minute, and advised that it could mean avoiding a prison sentence, even though he was adamant he had done nothing wrong.

But as the current public inquiry into the scandal has heard, there were also strings attached to pleading guilty.

While it might mean a lesser sentence, he would have to sign a piece of paper stating the discrepancies in his accounts were nothing to do with the Horizon computer system installed by Fujitsu.

He agreed - and almost instantly regretted the decision. He was handed a 13-week prison sentence, and was led away from court in handcuffs, his career and reputation in tatters.

Despite the convictions, Sion Tecwyn remained convinced Noel Thomas was innocent

"At the time, I had no idea about what had happened," said Sion.

"I still couldn't believe he had stolen the money."

The nagging doubt about Noel Thomas would not go away, especially when the Post Office said it had been unable to trace the missing cash - £48,000 in total.

"Noel is like me - he's a normal bloke from Anglesey. He's not going to have an offshore bank account in the Cayman Islands. If he had the money, you could find it very, very easily," Sion said.

"That strengthened my belief that he hadn't done anything."

Computer Weekly bombshell

It was a view that divided opinions among some of his own BBC News colleagues. After all, the Post Office worker had pleaded guilty and gone to jail.

But in 2009, that all changed when a computer industry news magazine published a piece casting doubts on the Horizon system being used by Post Office branches.

Armed with a copy of the Computer Weekly article, Sion showed up on Noel Thomas's doorstep - and it was the first time he had heard the claims.

"With Noel, just as with the others, he was told all the time 'No, there's not a problem with the computers, you're the only one'.

"Because that line was used in so many cases, you have to think that was a deliberate tactic - to isolate these people and make them feel alone."

But in truth, it had the opposite effect.

Some of the real postmasters portrayed in the drama series: Lee Castleton, Noel Thomas, Jo Hamilton and Alan Bates - appearing in the 2009 Taro 9 documentary

With Sion's report out, broadcast in May 2009 on S4C Newyddion and BBC Radio Cymru programmes, it caught the attention of the BBC's Welsh language investigative team working on the programme Taro 9.

Between them, the programme's journalists Bryn Jones and Anna-Marie Robinson set out to track down the sub-postmasters identified by the Computer Weekly article and by Sion.

"Computer Weekly had about seven cases - Anna and Bryn found 29 others, which is huge," said Sion.

"I don't think the significance of Taro 9 has been recognised.

"As a direct result of Taro 9, the sub-postmasters decided to come together, which you see in the TV drama."

Alan Bates (left) was portrayed by actor Toby Jones in the ITV drama series

Mr Bates vs The Post Office was broadcast in the first week of January 2024 on ITV, starring Toby Jones as Llandudno postmaster Alan Bates, and showed how that initial meeting led to the formation of the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance.

The group - including Noel Thomas, who was portrayed in the drama by actor Ifan Huw Dafydd - went on to fight a decade-long battle through the courts, before the initial convictions were quashed.

However, it was a bitter-sweet victory for the Anglesey sub-postmaster. He learned the Post Office was not going to contest his claim through the appeal court just days before his son Arfon, 51, died after a short illness.

"I rang Noel thinking he'd be over the moon about the appeal and he was really flat - uninterested," said reporter Sion.

"I remember asking him what's the matter, and he said he was in hospital with his son - and he hadn't got long to go.

"I do remember putting the phone down and, unprofessionally perhaps, getting really angry and emotional about it.

"How much does one family have to suffer? Just when there was light at the end of the tunnel and that happened."

Noel Thomas's conviction was quashed at the Court of Appeal in London

Sion plays down any role he had in highlighting the plight of the Post Office scandal victims such as Noel.

"I thinks as far as the scandal is concerned, what we did on Newyddion has had zero impact.

"What I think was important as far as Noel was concerned, as far as his community were concerned, we sowed the seeds of doubt - that this wasn't just a case of a postmaster with his hands in the till."

Noel - like the more than 700 other victims of the scandal - now await the outcome of the public inquiry.

He has said he will not rest until there is justice for everyone involved.