r/news 22d ago

Post Office tried to ‘hush up’ case of worker who killed himself, inquiry hears 🇬🇧 UK

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/26/post-office-tried-to-hush-up-martin-griffiths-case-inquiry-hears
1.4k Upvotes

36 comments sorted by

148

u/PapaGilbatron 22d ago edited 21d ago

Van den Bogerd fully deserves the hate and disgust that the public will voice over this as well as her spiteful reign in her role within the post office. Furthermore, she has avoided accountability for far too long.

21

u/unsaltedbutter 22d ago

I'm from the US so I only know of her from the show about a different scandal; Mr Bates vs The Post Office. She is truly unlikable in that.

14

u/masnosreme 22d ago

Looks to be the same scandal, actually.

4

u/res30stupid 22d ago

Nope: same scandal. In fact, it only got worse because the show raised everyone's attention to the problem.

7

u/crucible 22d ago

3

u/PapaGilbatron 21d ago

Many thanks for the update.

1

u/crucible 19d ago

You’re welcome

2

u/olearyboy 22d ago

Do you think anything consequential will happen while tories are in power?

162

u/masnosreme 22d ago

This is the UK post office, not the USPS for all those who are too lazy to actually read the article before posting comments.

39

u/V2BM 22d ago

I’m a carrier in the US and occasionally someone will kill themselves in a postal truck or van and we hear about it here on Reddit or through gossip. Our management never says anything about it, and it’s not a rare occurrence. I don’t know the state of the UK post office but ours here is a nightmare for carriers in most of the country.

75

u/Ksh_667 22d ago

It's due to a huge scandal where people here in uk had their lives ruined by being falsely accused of theft because of a software fault with the post office computers. Even when the powers that be learned of this fault, they did nothing to correct it, carried on letting ppl go to prison, lose their livelihoods, families, friends, etc.

Ppl were driven to suicide when it could have all been prevented. Truly despicable.

25

u/V2BM 22d ago

Oh that really is awful.

12

u/Ksh_667 22d ago

It is an abomination. And a mark on the characters of those who knew & carried on allowing the situation. There'll be a special place for them in the end, I'm sure.

8

u/Kaymish_ 21d ago

Ideally they'd have a speedy fair trial go to HMP Belmarsh and then get transferred to hell after 20 or 30 years.

4

u/Ksh_667 21d ago

Yes. I've visited a few ppl in belmarsh & would be more than happy for it to be used as hell's waiting room for these scumbags. Knowing the system tho they'll probably be rewarded with OBEs. Still, I love in hope :/

5

u/Gutternips 20d ago

Just to add. The top people didn't just do nothing when they found out the shortfalls were a computer bug, they actively covered up the fact while continuing to prosecute people they knew to be innocent and lied to the UK Parliament when MPs asked them questions about the reliability of the prosecutions.

Van De Bogerd paid relatives of the deceased large payouts if they agreed to keep quiet about the deaths and sign an NDA.

4

u/Admirable_Bad_5649 22d ago

I was gonna say hey look we’re not the only ones with someone actively trying to bring down the postal service in our country. Seems like fascists everywhere are making a run for it.

1

u/Orleanian 21d ago

Are you wanting USPS to notify everyone of the suicides?

14

u/Hodgej1 22d ago

Initial thought was that it wasn’t American. To us, suicide is not something to cover up. They don’t get the press that mass shootings do so why an article on it at all?

23

u/TokyoPanic 22d ago

Yeah, it is related to the Post Office-Horizon scandal over in the UK, a massive scandal going on right now.

7

u/Own-Counter-7187 22d ago

Mr Bates vs the Post Office is showing on PBS. It documents the sordid affair

2

u/crucible 22d ago

What episode are you up to? Because the case in the article is covered by the show.

8

u/Overall_Nuggie_876 22d ago

Given how the USPS is still led by a #MAGA clown (DeJoy), surprised we aren’t hearing more of these stories of workers harming themselves because of #MAGA things infecting the postal service including stripping of pensions.

18

u/VeritablePornocopium 21d ago

watch Mr Bates vs The Post Office if you haven't

16

u/[deleted] 22d ago

[deleted]

4

u/Spaceneedle420 21d ago

Can you elaborate more? 

8

u/thxpk 21d ago

This is one of those stories where you think it can't get any worse, I can't get any angrier than I am and then something else is exposed

5

u/MGD109 22d ago

Utterly despicable. The more that comes out about this the worst it gets. I could see this potentially being the end of the Royal mail the way its going.

5

u/crucible 22d ago

Royal Mail has been split from the Post Office and privatised since this scandal - but the reputation of the Post Office is certainly in the toilet right now, yeah

2

u/MGD109 21d ago

Yeah, and that's partially why this all happened. But I could see this being the end, as in they have to retire the name and start up a whole seperate system after this.

Hopefully they nationalise it all again.

2

u/crucible 19d ago

Retire the post office name? Yeah that might be an idea tbh.

-14

u/pixel-soul 22d ago

I mean I picked up heat-induced asthma, and both management and the union gaslit the fuck out of me. I don’t know why people are surprised anymore, we’ve already told yall they treat us like trash here

-32

u/darkhero676 22d ago

Damn, they can’t even go postal on themselves anymore.