Ex-Fujitsu engineer admits altering courtroom testimony at request of Put up Workplace

A former IT engineer has admitted he modified essential skilled courtroom testimony on the request of the Post Office throughout wrongful prosecutions of department operators.

Gareth Jenkins, a former senior engineer on the contractor Fujitsu, on Tuesday informed the general public inquiry into one of many greatest miscarriages of justice in British historical past that legal professionals had requested him to vary witness statements.

Jenkins, who was going through the primary of 4 days of questioning at the judge-led hearings in London, additionally claimed that the Horizon IT software program was “generally … working properly”, regardless of its central position within the scandal.

The state-owned physique wrongfully prosecuted 900 post office operators on the premise of alleged monetary shortfalls within the accounts of their branches. Nonetheless, a lot of these shortfalls have been brought on by bugs and errors within the Horizon system that operators have been pressured to make use of.

Fujitsu designed and constructed the Horizon system. The twice-postponed questioning of Jenkins, who was honoured as a “distinguished engineer” by the Japanese-owned firm, will run for longer than some other witness throughout the inquiry.

Jenkins is a part of a Metropolitan police investigation into attainable perjury and perverting the course of justice. Earlier than his testimony, Jenkins was reminded of his privilege in opposition to self-incrimination by the decide main the inquiry, Wyn Williams.

The inquiry is partly inspecting whether or not the Put up Workplace and contractors knew in regards to the existence of bugs earlier than deciding to go forward with the prosecutions, and whether or not they coated up important proof about Horizon throughout these prosecutions.

A former Put up Workplace monetary investigator final week mentioned Jenkins could have determined to remove references to “system failures” in Horizon in written testimony as an skilled witness throughout one prosecution.

Underneath UK legislation, skilled witnesses have an obligation to the courtroom to present unbiased testimony. Jenkins repeatedly mentioned on Tuesday that he was not conscious of the duties of an skilled witness on the time of the prosecutions, and that he made modifications to his proof according to options from Put up Workplace legal professionals.

Seema Misra, who attended the listening to on Tuesday, was one of the post office operators wrongfully convicted on the premise of Horizon proof. She was pregnant together with her second little one when she was sent to prison.

In a witness assertion revealed by the inquiry on Tuesday, Jenkins mentioned that in 2010 he despatched a draft witness assertion relating to Misra’s case to the Put up Workplace. The corporate’s barrister, Warwick Tatford, made feedback on the draft.

Jenkins wrote: “He appeared to need me to make some factors extra strongly in favour of [Post Office Limited] than I had carried out. Specifically, he needed me to say that it seemed as if Mrs Misra had stolen cash quite than that it was incompetence.”

In his written assertion, Jenkins apologised to Misra, denied mendacity, and mentioned he solely came upon she was pregnant years later. Misra rejected the apology in a tearful interview with the BBC outdoors the listening to. “He might have carried out it ages in the past when he mentioned he realised,” she mentioned. “Let’s see how cooperative he’s with this inquiry.”

Requested a few totally different case, Jenkins mentioned: “I really modified issues there on account of a few of these feedback … I used to be pleased to just accept options of how my wording could possibly be improved.”

Jenkins mentioned he pushed again in opposition to the Put up Workplace when the steered modifications went too far. He informed the inquiry: “There have been actually circumstances the place they have been attempting to place phrases into my mouth which I didn’t need to say.”Underneath hours of detailed scrutiny, Jenkins repeatedly mentioned he would have acted in a different way with hindsight. Nonetheless, he additionally stood by the Horizon system, arguing that it was working properly “more often than not”. He didn’t agree with a 2019 excessive courtroom judgment that discovered Horizon was not sturdy.

He was questioned repeatedly in regards to the courtroom’s findings by Jason Beer, a barrister for the inquiry. Requested whether or not he agreed the software program was “inclined to accounting flaws”, Jenkins mentioned: “There have been some discrete bugs that prompted issues to the accounts, however they have been very discrete, and I imagine they have been all properly managed and managed on the time.”