"The Post Office's Horizon computer system may have been deployed earlier than thought, potentially affecting which convictions get automatically quashed under legislation introduced to speed up justice in one of the biggest scandals in recent British history, MPs heard yesterday. Amanda Pearce, casework operations director at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) - an independent public body that reviews possible miscarriages of justice - told the Commons Business and Trade Committee that new Post Office information suggested Horizon was installed earlier than originally believed."
"From 1999 until 2015, around 736 subpostmasters were wrongfully prosecuted and convicted over Horizon errors, devastating lives in the process. A statutory inquiry into the mass miscarriage of justice launched in 2021 and is ongoing."
New Post Office information indicates the Horizon system may have been installed earlier than previously believed, which could change eligibility for automatic quashing under the 2024 Horizon offences legislation. The CCRC is investigating possible miscarriages of justice involving computer systems predating Horizon while new details continue to emerge. Horizon is an EPOS and back-end finance system first implemented by ICL in the 1990s, later acquired by Fujitsu and upgraded twice. From 1999 to 2015 about 736 subpostmasters were wrongfully prosecuted and convicted over Horizon errors. A statutory inquiry launched in 2021 found that senior staff and suppliers knew or should have known about system defects and recorded 13 suicides likely linked to prosecutions.
Read at Theregister
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]