She has resigned:
Pitcher said this afternoon that, like a former Post Office chairman, she had been made to take the rap for the failures of others. In her resignation letter, she told the justice secretary Shabana Mahmood that Mahmood’s predecessor, Alex Chalk KC, had chosen to scapegoat her at an early stage. “A head had to roll,” Pitcher said, “and I was chosen for that role.”
I do feel I have been scapegoated for entirely legitimate operational decisions that were not handled by any non-executive CCRC chair before I joined the organisation. The original rejection of Mr Malkinson’s appeal was almost a decade before my time: on my watch, armed with new DNA evidence which we commissioned, we were able to resolve the situation and set Mr Malkinson free…
Whilst wishing the organisation well, I worry it may prove extremely difficult to find a new chair prepared to take on this important role on the understanding that, like me, they will be held personally responsible for historical failures over which they will have had no say.
