Interesting story about judges. Of course it's different in that the Post Office was able to bring prosecutions and not always have to consult with the CPS. Although I've seen that they did do with some cases. However, this is sobering in light of the proposal to cut out juries. As above, once it happens for one crime, what is next?
Postmasters ‘were failed by judges’ in Horizon scandal
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/58152a19-a5c5-4d25-a6f7-0eaa6332ca3a?shareToken=80a3775575cc00bde8d1fd5dc9631c95
"More than a dozen judges failed sub-postmasters who were convicted in the UK’s biggest miscarriage of justice scandal, a former director of public prosecutions has said.
Sir David Calvert-Smith, who reviewed scores of sub-postmaster appeals for the Post Office over the discredited Horizon computer system, has said that in at least 12 of the convictions, judges should have “probed” the prosecution case “more deeply”.
... In 2021 the Post Office instructed Calvert-Smith and Brian Altman KC to review the cases of 42 convicted sub-postmasters before they went to the Court of Appeal. Ultimately, the appeal judge quashed 39 of the convictions. Speaking at a Bar Council conference in London at the weekend, Calvert-Smith addressed the question of whether some crown court judges who heard the private prosecutions brought by the Post Office had let sub-postmasters down.
“That is certainly true in as many as a dozen of the cases I read when I went through them,” said Calvert-Smith, before adding that “maybe more” fell into that category.
The 79-year-old retired judge said: “I thought surely a judge would have probed a bit more deeply rather than thinking ‘I’ve got a full list and I want to get on with my next case’.”"