Post Office Inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams has indicated that he is likely to find that individuals working for the organisation covered up what they knew about defects with the Horizon IT system.

Williams today published the first volume of his report into the scandal following a three-year public inquiry, focusing on the human impact and compensation issues.

This part of the report was not intended to apportion any blame for what happened, but general points at the outset suggest that this will come further down the line.

Williams said: ‘Although many of the individuals who gave evidence before me were very reluctant to accept it, I am satisfied from the evidence that I have heard that a number of senior, and not so senior, employees of the Post Office knew, or at the very least should have known, that Legacy Horizon was capable of error.’

Equally, the Horizon Online system that was introduced in branches from 2010 was also afflicted by bugs, errors and defects and Williams said that ‘a number’ of employees of Fujitsu (which designed and operated the system) and Post Office knew this was so.

Sir Wyn Williams speaks at the Post Office Inquiry report press conference

Sir Wyn Williams pictured during today's press conference

Source: Alamy 

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The chair said he would summarise and explain the evidence which justified these statements in a later volume of his report.

Between 2000 and 2013 the Post Office prosecuted postmasters and others who worked in branches across the UK based on evidence produced by the Horizon system apparently showing that losses had occurred. In many case, postmasters were accused of theft and opted to plead guilty to false accounting to avoid prison.

Williams said the losses shown by Horizon were ‘illusory as opposed to real’ and that he regarded postmasters as ‘victims of wholly unacceptable behaviour perpetrated by a number of individuals employed by and/or associated with the Post Office and Fujitsu’.

Around 1,000 people were prosecuted and convicted based on Horizon evidence, with up to 60 people prosecuted but not convicted. The inquiry concluded that 13 deaths by suicide have been linked to the Post Office scandal, with many more victims (and in some cases their relatives) suffering depression, family breakdown, homelessness and public shaming.

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