Post Office inquiry live: Former litigation lawyer Rodric Williams to give evidence - BBC News
Post Office inquiry live: Former litigation lawyer Rodric Williams to give evidence - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
The inquiry yesterday heard evidence from former Post Office investigator Jon Longman and ex-Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton. Here are some key moments from their evidence:
Leighton began his evidence by saying the Horizon scandal is “unbelievable” and “terrible”, and he apologised for “elements” of it that occurred during his time in the role
Rodric Williams is being questioned now by Jason Beer KC, counsel to the inquiry.
Pressed by lawyers, Leighton said he was aware that prosecutions were conducted by the Post Office, unlike senior executives Alan Cook and Adam Crozier who said earlier this week they were not.
His witness statement is immediately shown to the inquiry as Beer deals with the corrections that Williams wants to make before his evidence begins.
Separately, Longman said he should have tried harder to get data requested on behalf of Seema Misra, who was eight weeks pregnant when she was sentenced to 15 months in prison
Williams was a litigation lawyer for the PO during the Horizon scandal, and is currently their head of legal for dispute resolution and brand.
Julian Blake, counsel to the inquiry, asked why the requests had been rejected. An internal Post Office email from June 2009 argued the size of Misra's request would have used up too much of its "quota", while another email argued that a lot of postmasters tend to "plead guilty at the 11th hour"
Stay with us as we bring you more lines.
"With hindsight, I wish the data requested had been provided," Longman said, adding that he "should have been a bit more forceful in getting disclosure to the defence"
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