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The current rules around digital evidence are partly to blame for the widest miscarriage of justice in UK history
By
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Karl Flinders,
Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA
Published: 08 Jan 2024 12:53
Everyone is talking about it – the government must take action and change the law that made it easy for the Post Office to wrongly convict people based on computer evidence. The widest miscarriage of justice in UK history has shone a spotlight on the rules around digital evidence.
The Post Office Horizon scandal is now getting the attention and anger it deserves, and public opinion is finally forcing politicians to take action. The mistreatment of subpostmasters needs to be addressed, and the hundreds of potentially wrongful convictions need to be rectified.
The scandal saw hundreds of subpostmasters prosecuted based on computer evidence after unexplained shortfalls in their accounts. The IT system used by subpostmasters, known as Horizon, was later proved to be error-prone, casting doubt on the prosecutions.
Computer Weekly exposed the scandal and years later, the convictions had to be quashed. Many more are expected to follow, making it the widest miscarriage of justice in UK history.
While the government puts its focus on addressing problems in compensation and conviction appeals, there is another wrong that needs to be righted – the rules around the use of digital evidence must change.
This is the moment to make changes.