Sir Wyn Williams pressured to behave after repeated failures by Post Office to reveal proof to the inquiry inspecting essentially the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK authorized historical past
By
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Bryan Glick,
Editor in chief
Published: 14 Jul 2023 15:30
The decide in command of the Post Office Horizon scandal public inquiry has threated “criminal sanctions” towards the Post Office if it continues with ongoing “significant failures” in disclosing proof.
Sir Wyn Williams mentioned in the present day that each one future inquiry requests for proof to the Post Office will carry a discover beneath Section 21 of the Inquiries Act 2005, which he mentioned “carries a threat of a criminal sanction” together with a sentence of as much as 51 weeks’ imprisonment.
The transfer follows a sequence of disclosure failures by the Post Office in the course of the course of the general public inquiry – whereas Williams additionally famous that the organisation’s failures to reveal vital data has been an element all through the historical past of what has develop into essentially the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK authorized historical past.
Williams was pressured to behave after additional delays in offering paperwork by the Post Office to the inquiry led to an adjournment of proceedings and a rescheduling of hearings deliberate for this month. The Post Office has taken 18 months to supply paperwork in some circumstances, the inquiry was informed.
On 4 July, Williams grilled the senior in-house lawyer on the Post Office, basic counsel Ben Foat, over continued delays and issues in offering the inquiry with requested paperwork.
Only two days later, Williams was pressured to postpone a listening to with a vital witness – Gareth Jenkins, former chief architect at Horizon provider Fujitsu – after “significant” proof included in 1000’s of paperwork was disclosed simply hours earlier than Jenkins was set to be questioned by inquiry legal professionals for the primary time.
Inquiry barrister Jason Beer KC revealed that 95 paperwork regarding Jenkins’ proof had solely that week been obtained from the Post Office. Furthermore, Beer mentioned that at 10:32pm on 5 July, Post Office notified the inquiry that a kind of paperwork was “likely to be of significant interest” to Jenkins’ proof – permitting no time for legal professionals to analyse them. The Post Office additionally disclosed that it had recognized an additional 4,767 paperwork, not beforehand disclosed to the inquiry, which may be related to the proof from Jenkins.
“It is of course grossly unsatisfactory, to be told at 10.32pm that there are 4,767 documents that are at least potentially relevant to a witness who is being called 11 hours and 28 minutes later,” mentioned Beer. Jenkins will now give proof after the summer time break.
The following week, on 11 July, Williams introduced that section 4 of the statutory inquiry can be adjourned, after the Post Office as soon as extra informed the inquiry that it might not be doable to supply additional paperwork in time for hearings over the next weeks.
Williams mentioned he’s decided to be open minded and at this stage it’s not doable to supply definitive views about how the method of disclosure had been managed, however added: “It would be remiss of me to fail to guard against the possibility that there are those who are engaged in the process of disclosure of documents on behalf of the Post Office who are unwilling or unable to comply strictly with requests for disclosure of documents made of them by the inquiry.”
Williams has now referred to as Foat to seem earlier than the inquiry once more on 5 September to present additional proof, alongside with “senior persons who are directly and substantially involved in the disclosure for Phase 4 of the inquiry”.
The inquiry chief mentioned that each one future requests for paperwork or data made to the Post Office shall be made pursuant to a Section 21 discover, including: “For the reasons I have already given, this carries a threat of a criminal sanction.”
He will even now maintain common hearings to debate disclosure all through the rest of the inquiry. He mentioned the hearings have develop into needed due to the “significant failures in disclosure on the part of the Post Office”.
Before adjourning the inquiry, Williams requested the subpostmaster victims of the scandal for his or her views on additional delaying the method. He noticed that “there was no attempt to disguise the view held by many that the Post Office disclosure failings are deliberate”.
He added: “It does not surprise me that this is the attitude of many former subpostmasters. After all, a failure to disclose crucial information about Horizon was a central finding leading to the quashing of [their] criminal convictions in the Court of Appeal.”
In 2009, a Computer Weekly investigation first revealed that subpostmasters had been being blamed for unexplained accounting shortfalls, which they believed to be brought on by software program errors.
A complete of 736 subpostmasters had been prosecuted by the Post Office for theft and fraud between 2000 and 2015, primarily based on proof from the Horizon software program they use in branches.
But when 555 subpostmasters efficiently sued the Post Office within the High Court for wrongfully blaming and punishing them for unexplained shortages – resulting in jail sentences and chapter for some – the truth that the Horizon system was error-prone was proved. Since then, 86 subpostmasters thus far have had legal convictions overturned and lots of extra are anticipated.
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…. to be continued
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