The Post Office’s first reaction to the suicide of a deputy postmaster whom it accused of theft was to hire a media lawyer to protect its “brand reputation”, as reported in the investigation into the Horizon IT scandal.

Angela van den Bogerd, a former Post Office executive, received emails sent to her and the organisation’s communications team following the death of Martin Griffiths, a subpostmaster accused of stealing £100,000. Griffiths had run his branch in Great Sutton, Cheshire, for 14 years before deficits appeared in 2009.

Griffiths and his elderly parents had donated their life savings to the Post Office to cover the shortfall, and fined him £7,000 after his branch was violently robbed in May 2013.

In fact, the discrepancies were