Post Office investigator deleted 'damaging' words about Horizon errors, inquiry told

A former Post Office investigator deleted part of a draft witness statement that referred to the Horizon IT system's failures, before the criminal prosecution of a post office operative, a public inquiry heard.

- Jason Deans

Graham Ward, a former Post Office financial investigator, was questioned before the public inquiry examining what MPs have described as one of the biggest ever miscarriages of justice.

The state-owned body wrongly prosecuted hundreds of post office operatives, alleging financial shortfalls at their branches. It emerged that the Post Office's Horizon IT system was not reliable and had defects.

Ward was asked about changes he made in 2006 to a draft witness statement from Gareth Jenkins, an IT engineer at Fujitsu, the company that developed the Horizon IT system. The Post Office had wanted to use Jenkins' statement in the criminal prosecution of Noel Thomas, a post office operative from Anglesey, Wales, who is one of the highest-profile victims of the scandal.

Thomas was jailed for nine months for false accounting in 2006 but had his conviction quashed in 2021.

The inquiry was shown a copy of the draft witness statement made by Jenkins to which Ward made changes highlighted in red.