During questioning at the Post Office scandal public inquiry, former Fujitsu engineer Gareth Jenkins made an astonishing claim regarding his previous statements as a witness for the Post Office trials involving subpostmasters. Jenkins clarified that a paragraph in his witness statement, which referenced “the computer”, was actually meant to indicate the computer used to write the statement, not the Horizon software system. He explained that the paragraph was a standard statement from Fujitsu, following rules from the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
Jenkins clarified during the inquiry that the paragraph in question was not meant to imply that Horizon was working properly, as some witnesses had interpreted. When questioned about the statement by Jason Beer KC, Jenkins confirmed that he was referring to his desktop computer’s operation. There was discussion at the inquiry about the interpretation of the statement, with some experts finding it extraordinary that Fujitsu used such wording without considering its implications.
The Post Office scandal, first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealed the injustices faced by subpostmasters like Alan Bates due to accounting software issues. This scandal is considered one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history.