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Post Office Horizon scandal: Legal and computer IT expert who can talk about if all evidence from Horizon being used to convict subpostmasters being unsafe

Journalist: Oliver Price, MailOnline

ended 11. January 2024

I am looking to speak with a legal expert with a specialism in computer systems or IT who can let me know if there's a possibility of all the Post Office cases which used evidence from the Horizon system to convict subpostmasters (or take their money) being treated retroactively as unsafe and therefore any legal ruling which used it is automatically thrown out.

I.e. We know the Horizon system was broken, so can a court or parliament say that any criminal or civil case which relied on evidence from it is automatically overturned en masse?

Thanks,

Oliver Price

1 responses from the Newspage community

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Have some legal experience and very good IT specialism - it's clear that had representation been offered to these poor Postmasters, in the usual format and at the right time, a simple "better and further particulars" evidence request would have beaten off all of these cases. There is simply no detailed/reliable smoking gun audit material it would seem to bring such a case - the systems were hopeless and open to manipulation by third-party operators, Fujitsu, that the end user didn't know or recognise were in the loop and having access to data. Parliament has ultimate control in this - I can't see a vote going against this if it gets scheduled to be discussed, it's clear someone in government needs to do more and faster. From reading into this matter it's scandalous that so many stood by and failed to act or, which is more likely, were silenced by someone. It's puzzling why someone isn't coming forward to identify who ordered the kicking of this can down the road for decades.