As a result of these bugs and the
Post Office, who contracted Fujitsu to provide the system, hundreds of well-respected, law abiding people were fined, convicted (many went to prison), spat at and vilified by the public, put into debt or bankrupted, lost their houses and were made virtually unemployable (unless they worked as an Uber driver!). Some even committed suicide (one unfortunate man was so depressed that he went to a busy road, waited for a bus to come down the road and then stepped out in front of it) - truly shocking.
Due to
the repealing of Section 69 of the 1984 PACE act, it became very difficult to challenge the reliability of any computer system in a UK Court of Law. If a judge was given expert evidence which said that a computer system was 'reliable', then the court had to accept that.
This made it very hard to prove in court that there were indeed computer/software bugs. It was only by getting a class action law suit together with enough funds to pay top class expert witnesses and lawyers and barristers who understood the technology, that the problems were finally revealed (see 'Smoking Gun' below).
Now, of course, we all know that computers have bugs. What seems to be the scandal in this case however, was how the Post Office appears to have covered up these bugs and how they continued to prosecute the sub-post masters (SPMs) while not fully investigating each 'account misbalance' incident and while being fully aware that previous and current bugs may well have caused the discrepancies.
In addition, it was denied for many years that remote access and alteration of data was possible - this turned out to be untrue. Remote access to the Windows NT Post Office terminals was possible and database issues were occasionally fixed remotely on these terminals by Fujitsu, and without the SPM being informed in many cases ('we fixed it - try it now').
Smoking Gun!
The best description of some of the various bugs and how they were proven in a Court Trial in 2019 by Patrick Green KC that I found is
HERE . Please click on it to learn about some of the bugs and how they were revealed in court. It is a very good description.
Inquiry
There is a large Government Inquiry running at the moment. They are currently in Phase 4.
Phase 1 - Human Impact Hearings | See archive for London, Cardiff, Leeds, Glasgow and Belfast hearings held in February – May 2022. |
Issues of Compensation Hearings | See archive for hearings held on 6 July and 13 July. |
Opening statements from Core Participants' legal representatives | See archive for hearings held between 11 - 14 October 2022. |
Phase 2 - Horizon IT System: procurement, design, pilot, roll out and modifications | See archive for hearings held between 18 October - 2 December 2022. |
| One day hearing on matters relating to compensation | See archive for hearing held on 8 December 2022. |
Phase 3 - Operation: training, assistance, resolution of disputes, knowledge and rectification of errors in the system | See archive for hearings held between 10 January - 19 May 2023 |
| One day hearing on matters relating to compensation | Aldwych House, London 27 April 2023 Timetable |
Phase 4 - Action against Sub-postmasters and others: policy making, audits and investigations, civil and criminal proceedings, knowledge of and responsibility for failures in investigation and disclosure | Aldwych House, London 4 to 28 July 2023 Hearing schedule Phase 4 schedule continues below. |
| Disclosure hearing - announced by Sir Wyn Williams on 14 July 2023 | Aldwych House, London 5 September 2023 10:00 Timetable |
| Phase 4 Continued - Action against Sub-postmasters and others: policy making, audits and investigations, civil and criminal proceedings, knowledge of and responsibility for failures in investigation and disclosure | Aldwych House, London 19 September to 20 October 2023 7 November to 20 December 2023 Hearing schedule Phase 4 schedule continues below |
| Disclosure hearing | Aldwych House, London 12 January 2024 Timetable |
Phase 4 Continued - Action against Sub-postmasters and others: policy making, audits and investigations, civil and criminal proceedings, knowledge of and responsibility for failures in investigation and disclosure | Aldwych House, London 11 January - 2 February 2024 Hearing schedule |
Phase 5 - Redress: access to justice, Second Sight, Complaint Review and Mediation Scheme, conduct of the group litigation, responding to the scandal and compensation schemes | Aldwych House, London Spring/Summer 2024 |
Phase 6 - Governance: monitoring of Horizon, contractual arrangements, internal and external audit, technical competence, stakeholder engagement, oversight and whistleblowing | Aldwych House, London Spring/Summer 2024 |
Phase 7 - Current practice and procedure and recommendations for the future | Aldwych House, London Spring/Summer 2024 |
You can watch all the Inquiry sessions on You Tube
here. You can even watch live sessions.
Gullible or Evil?
 |
| Gareth Jenkins (Fujitsu/ICL) |
However, one person not yet interviewed by the Inquiry is
Gareth Jenkins (71), a Cambridge mathematics graduate and a leading Fujitsu engineer/architect whose Expert Witness statement had been used in many court cases and he had sworn under oath that the Horizon system was 'reliable'. His evidence to the Inquiry has been delayed at the last minute on two separate occasions so far, and the Inquiry Phase 4 timetable does not currently show his name as a scheduled witness.
 |
| Ann Chambers (Support Engineer - Fujitsu/ICL) |
Both Ann Chambers and Gareth Jenkins have both given evidence in Court as Expert Witnesses and are believed to have already been interviewed by the UK Metropolitan Police.
Judging from her Inquiry evidence sessions,
Ann Chambers strikes me as a well-meaning, open and intelligent person who was one of the few people who tried to help identify and press to fix the bugs in the system but was limited by her position, knowledge of computer systems and
her job role. Of her own volition, she even wrote a post-trial 'report' to her bosses pointing out the gaping holes in their processes but she was ignored.
It is rumoured that Gareth Jenkins was not fully informed of the duties and responsibilities of an Expert Witness, or had not fully understood the consequences of signing an Expert Witness statement that was not 100% true and complete (and to the best of his knowledge) - i.e. he could get LIFE IMPRISONMENT for perjury!
Was he duped or did he deliberately give misleading evidence that led to the unimaginable suffering of hundreds (if not thousands) of innocent, hard working, honest, honorable people? Is he currently negotiating immunity from prosecution? Hopefully we will hear what he has to say one day...
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