More testimony that speaks volumes – resit support

The second day of evidence given by former Fujitsu engineer Gareth Jenkins at the Port Office inquiry throws doubt on the integrity of a whole load of people, Some highlights, if you can call them that:

• … has admitted the Post Office asked him to alter his evidence to make it less emotive.
• … draft witness statement he had prepared for the case against sub-postmaster Noel Thomas was changed to save the Post Office embarrassment.
• Mr Thomas was sentenced to nine months for false accounting in 2006 and spent his 60th birthday in prison, one of more than 700 sub-postmasters who were prosecuted for fraud and theft by the Post Office, based on faulty data from Fujitsu’s Horizon accounting system.
• … “system failure” could be one of the reasons behind the problems at Mr Thomas’ branch, Jenkins adding that “such failures are normal occurrences”.
• That line had been deleted in edits to the document made by Post Office investigator Graham Ward.
• Mr Ward added in tracked changes to the document: “This is a really poor choice of words which seems to accept that failures in the system are normal and therefore may well support the postmasters’ claim that the system is to blame for losses !!!!”
• Mr Ward told him (Gareth Jenkins) his statement needed work, saying it was “potentially very damaging” and that the Post Office needed to ensure it was not “embarrassed” in court.
• In its prosecutions, the Post Office had argued that Horizon could not be accessed remotely by any other party. The Post Office said that therefore the accused sub-postmasters must have been responsible for the shortfalls in their accounts. But this turned out to be untrue, depriving those accused of an important line of defence. Remote access was not only possible by Fujitsu’s engineers, it could be done without leaving any trace, in a way that was indistinguishable from changes made by sub-postmasters.
• An earlier key witness at the inquiry, Second Sight forensic investigator Ian Henderson, suggested that Mr Jenkins was aware that remote access was possible much earlier, alleging that Mr Jenkins had told him in 2012 that Fujitsu “routinely used remote access to branch terminals” without sub-postmasters’ knowledge or consent. This included making “keystrokes that were indistinguishable from a sub-postmaster accessing the terminal directly”.
• Source.

Truth, it seems, had taken a forced holiday, along with its friends ethics and morals. 

And there’s still two more days to go.

A nice round number of students turned up to the support session today – that’s right, zero. It’s due three weeks on Friday.

After the college meeting after lunch I looked at the traffic on the way home and found there was a little problem at Junction 10 of the M42, a vehicle fire. Of course local roads were also affected, so the journey home was rather extended. To morrow is work at home, Friday in for more support. May be on my own again.

Three weeks tomorrow is my last day.

Music

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Così fan tutte – Act I trio ‘Soave sia il vento’, The Royal Opera)