Subpostmaster was instructed no jury would consider Put up Workplace had ‘dodgy pc’

A elementary misunderstanding of the reliability of computer systems is partly responsible for the authorized precept of being harmless till confirmed responsible being tarnished by the Put up Workplace scandal, in line with an educational analysis undertaking.

One of many findings was {that a} lawyer defending a subpostmaster wrongly blamed for an account shortfall instructed the defendant that no jury would consider a prestigious authorities organisation would have a “dodgy pc”.

The Put up Workplace scandal has already pressured the federal government to think about altering the foundations on pc proof in court docket, now teachers suggest the follow of decreasing a defendant’s jail sentence as a reward for pleading responsible be reviewed.

Over 900 former subpostmasters had been wrongly convicted of crimes primarily based on proof from the Put up Workplace’s defective pc system, Horizon. The federal government has accepted that the prosecutions had been wrongful, and as a part of their analysis, teachers on the College of Exeter Regulation College have collected info from 35 folks affected.

Their analysis report, Accessing injustice? Experiences of illustration and the prison justice system throughout the Put up Workplace scandal, reveals that “the golden thread” of British justice, that persons are harmless till confirmed responsible, “has been uncovered by the Put up Workplace scandal as extra deeply tarnished than beforehand thought”.

The examine was carried out by the consultants on the Put up Workplace analysis undertaking and the Proof Primarily based Justice Lab on the College of Exeter Regulation College, Sally Day, Richard Moorhead, and Rebecca Helm, in addition to Karen Nokes, from UCL.

Researchers mentioned: “A birds-eye view of the prison justice system offered to the researchers by former subpostmasters suggests ‘harmless till confirmed responsible’ was not often taken significantly sufficient by any a part of the prison justice system that [they] got here into contact with.”

As Pc Weekly has reported extensively, the Put up Workplace scandal has already uncovered the inadequacy of the authorized rule on pc proof that presumes a pc system has operated appropriately until there may be specific proof on the contrary.

In Could 2024, Parliament permitted a legislation to overturn over 900 wrongful convictions that had been primarily based on Horizon system information, which was proved to be unreliable within the Excessive Court docket in 2019.

The Division of Justice this 12 months issued a name for info because it examines the function of pc proof within the prison justice system to forestall one other Put up Workplace scandal.

The researchers additionally report that the authorized groups representing former subpostmasters that had been being prosecuted didn’t at all times consider them after they claimed innocence due to a lack of awareness of computer systems and misplaced respect for the Put up Workplace. One affected subpostmaster instructed them that their lawyer mentioned: “No 12 folks on a jury would consider {that a} prestigious authorities organisation would have a dodgy pc system.”  

It was this misinformed perspective and a scarcity of disclosure that, in line with the analysis, “prompted a number of defence legal professionals” to stress to shoppers that they had been up in opposition to “a robust, well-resourced establishment”, and that “combating the case was pointless”.

“Legal professionals left to advise shoppers within the absence of disclosure from the Put up Workplace sometimes inspired their shoppers to plead responsible within the hope they’d escape jail, sidestepping quite than addressing the consumer’s protestations of innocence,” mentioned the researchers.

Moorhead, a professor on the College of Exeter, leads the analysis group. “Legal professionals handled plea selections as routine, when for the subpostmasters they had been life-changing,” he mentioned. “Protestations of innocence weren’t taken significantly. Their opponent behaved appallingly, however consumer tales had been additionally not totally understood or investigated by these they needed to put religion in.”

Moorhead mentioned there was “profound carelessness in [defendant] therapy by their legal professionals and the courts”.

Helm, additionally a professor on the college, mentioned: “The pressures and cultures that allowed such injustice to happen are nonetheless working within the prison justice system immediately. Certainly, they could be worse.”

The researchers suggest that the Sentencing Council evaluate its steerage on responsible pleas to make sure defendants aren’t pressured to plead responsible earlier than disclosure is made, or the place skilled proof is required.

The Put up Workplace scandal was first uncovered by Pc Weekly in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered as a result of accounting software program (see timeline of Pc Weekly articles concerning the scandal beneath).