Post Office ‘attempted to pervert the course of justice’, lawyer alleges in new submission to inquiry
Post Office Limited (POL) “intended to pervert the course of justice” by relying on knowingly flawed cash accounts, an inquiry submission filed today alleged.
Sir Edward Henry KC, who represents former sub-postmasters Lee Castleton and Seema Misra, among others, in the Post Office scandal, made the remarks in a closing statement for the Horizon inquiry.
Writing for the legal firm Hodge Jones & Allen’s submission in Phase 4 of the inquiry, he accused Post Office lawyers and investigators of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice with Fujitsu staff in the litigation with Mr Castleton.
The former sub-postmaster owned a branch in Marine Drive, Bridlington, east Yorkshire, and was bankrupted by a lawsuit against the Post Office after a shortfall of £25,000 was flagged by his Horizon IT system.
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Sir Edward alleged that the Post Office’s reliance upon Mr Castleton’s cash accounts during litigation against him while “knowing there was expert evidence as to its unreliability, was a course of conduct which had a tendency to pervert the course of justice”.
He added: “It allowed POL to obtain judgment for a debt, and the consequent costs order, without producing reliable evidence that the debt was owed.”
The lawyer then said: “There is evidence that this course of conduct was also maliciously intended to pervert the course of justice, because the POL group either knew that the Marine Drive cash accounts may not have been reliable, or they closed their eyes to that knowledge.
“The motive for the course of conduct may have been to protect POL, or their own jobs, and the natural consequence of the course of conduct may not have been desired as such, but that does not mean it was not intended.
“Mr Castleton’s destruction may have been seen as unfortunate collateral damage in order to protect Horizon at all cost.”
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Sub-postmaster ‘can’t see any end to it’
Castleton bankrupted by litigation
The lawyer made his remarks based on evidence from the litigation against Alan Bates and Phase 1 of the Horizon Inquiry.
Within a year of buying the Marine Drive branch in 2003, Mr Castleton’s computer system showed a £25,000 shortfall.
He had called the Post Office’s helpline 91 times as he believed the Horizon IT system was at fault, but was taken to court by the firm in 2007.
The former sub-postmaster had to represent himself as he could not afford a lawyer, and was ordered to repay the money and pay costs of £321,000, which bankrupted him.
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Lee Castleton called the Post Office’s helpline 91 times after his Horizon IT system showed a shortfall of £25,000
Fujitsu ‘lacked knowledge’ of Horizon use
Meanwhile, Fujitsu alleged in their closing remarks that they were unaware of how the Post Office would use information from the Horizon systems against sub-postmasters.
In page nine of their submission, the firm said they accept “that in some cases, although Fujitsu provided no particular support to a prosecution or civil claim… it is nonetheless clear that information derived from the Horizon system was instrumental to a number of the wrongful prosecutions and civil proceedings pursued against sub-postmasters”.
They then alleged “that, once support was provided by Fujitsu to Post Office in a particular case… Fujitsu lacked control, and typically lacked knowledge, as to how that evidence would be deployed by Post Office in that case, or in any subsequent cases”.
The newest remarks are at odds with Fujitsu’s European boss Paul Patterson’s statement to the select committee in January, where he admitted staff knew of bugs, errors and defects in the Horizon IT system as far back as 1999.
Mr Patterson also said in an earlier committee appearance that the technology giant had a “moral obligation” to contribute to the compensation scheme for those whose lives were ruined by the scandal.
Sky News has contacted the Post Office for comment.
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters in Canada: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
Sir Keir said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a “really important agreement”.
“So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength,” the prime minister added.
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
As the pair exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, Mr Trump held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Sir Keir quickly stooped to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
The US president also appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries in April. At the time, he announced 10% “reciprocal” rates on all UK exports – as well as separately announced 25% levies on cars and steel.
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In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011, Sky News can reveal.
Dominic Cummings, who was working for Lord Gove at the time, has told Sky News that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a “total cover-up”.
Politics latest: Grooming gangs findings unveiled
The revelation shines a light on the institutional reluctance of some key officials in central government to publicly highlight the grooming gang scandal.
In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for help following inquiries by The Times. The paper’s then chief reporter, the late Andrew Norfolk, was asking about sexual abuse and trafficking of children in Rotherham.
The council went to Lord Gove’s Department for Education for help. Officials considered the request and then recommended to Lord Gove’s office that the minister back a judicial review which might, if successful, stop The Times publishing the story.
Lord Gove rejected the request on the advice of Mr Cummings. Sources have independently confirmed Mr Cummings’ account.
Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Pic: PA
Mr Cummings told Sky News: “Officials came to me in the Department of Education and said: ‘There’s this Times journalist who wants to write the story about these gangs. The local authority wants to judicially review it and stop The Times publishing the story’.
“So I went to Michael Gove and said: ‘This council is trying to actually stop this and they’re going to use judicial review. You should tell the council that far from siding with the council to stop The Times you will write to the judge and hand over a whole bunch of documents and actually blow up the council’s JR (judicial review).’
“Some officials wanted a total cover-up and were on the side of the council…
“They wanted to help the local council do the cover-up and stop The Times’ reporting, but other officials, including in the DfE private office, said this is completely outrageous and we should blow it up. Gove did, the judicial review got blown up, Norfolk stories ran.”
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Grooming gangs victim speaks out
The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times’ publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain.
A second source told Sky News that the advice from officials was to side with Rotherham Council and its attempts to stop publication of details it did not want in the public domain.
One of the motivations cited for stopping publication would be to prevent the identities of abused children entering the public domain.
There was also a fear that publication could set back the existing attempts to halt the scandal, although incidents of abuse continued for many years after these cases.
Sources suggested that there is also a natural risk aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort.
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Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man in Downing Street, has long pushed for a national inquiry into grooming gangs to expose failures at the heart of government.
He said the inquiry, announced today, “will be a total s**tshow for Whitehall because it will reveal how much Whitehall worked to try and cover up the whole thing.”
He also described Mr Johnson, with whom he has a long-standing animus, as a “moron’ for saying that money spent on inquiries into historic child sexual abuse had been “spaffed up the wall”.
Asked by Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates why he had not pushed for a public inquiry himself when he worked in Number 10 in 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and then COVID had taken precedence.
“There are a million things that I wanted to do but in 2019 we were dealing with the constitutional crisis,” he said.
The Department for Education and Rotherham Council have been approached for comment.
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