During the Horizon Inquiry, held to investigate how sub-postmasters were falsely accused of taking money from tills, a barrister who worked for a firm advising the British Post Office drew attention to misleading information surrounding the case of sub-postmistress, Seema Misra. Simon Clarke, who played a vital role in halting the prosecution, spoke about discovering that a key witness was withholding information on software flaws that caused costly accounting discrepancies. Clarke criticised the Post Office for being less than open about evidence relating to the Misra case.
The Horizon investigation is focussed on how the flawed computer system that was used led to wrongful accusations of theft and false accounting and resulted in convictions for more than 900 sub-postmasters using the faulty system. The pièce de résistance of the report is its analysis of the pivotal role of Gareth Jenkins in the problematic management of the process. Jenkins, a senior engineer from Fujitsu, had presented himself as a key architect of the IT system, testifying in multiple court cases whilst insisting that the system was robust. He was instrumental in Misra’s case, where he contributed to evidence that led to her conviction.
During the hearing, the Inquiry was shown a transcript from a phone call between Clarke and the barrister Mr Jenkins, in which they discussed what Gareth Jenkins knew about the software bugs. This revealed that Mr Jenkins was indeed aware of two bugs in the Horizon system and that he could not say with certainty that there were not more. In fact, the transcript showed that he must have had prior knowledge of the bugs because he had informed independent investigators Second Sight of their existence. However, despite raising doubts over Jenkins’ testimony, Clarke advised the Post Office that the information did not have to be disclosed to the lawyers representing Misra.
Clarke had some strong words for the Post Office, claiming that he had been “misled and deceived” by the institution over the availability of evidence relating to situations beyond Misra’s case. When he joined the Post Office, he had asked for a copy of the institution’s prosecution policy, but instead received a “single A4 document, badly photocopied” that was not at all helpful. In 2013, Clarke wrote a memo stating that the Post Office was destroying evidence detailing Horizon bugs, which he said must stop. Despite all this, he continued to work for the Post Office, saying he was “old-fashioned” and believed barristers don’t just walk away from their clients when life gets hard
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