Jarnail Singh was sent a report which identified a fault in the Horizon system only three days before Seema Misra was prosecuted, an inquiry heard.
Jarnail Singh said he ‘wasn’t made aware’ of a report identifying a fault with the Horizon system days before the prosecution began
Mr Singh, who denied the claims, was a senior lawyer at the Post Office and became head of criminal law in 2012 after it split with Royal Mail. He said this proved Mr Singh had lied years later when he denied having advance knowledge of the issues uncovered by a 2013 report carried out by forensic accounting firm Second Sight.
The inquiry saw an email sent by Mr Singh to colleagues in 2015 where he said he knew of the bugs uncovered by Second Sight only “a day or so prior” to its report’s publication. “Equally, it is embarrassing were it to be suggested POL were kept in the dark by such an important supplier such as Fujitsu.”
The inquiry also saw advice provided to the Post Office in 2013 by external barrister Simon Clarke which reported that Mr Singh had “been unaware and did not know of how long had known of the existence of the bugs nor indeed who at POL had known”.He added: “I’m ever so sorry Ms Misra had suffered and I am ever so embarrassed to be here, that we made those mistakes and put somebody’s liberty at stake and the loss she suffered and the damage caused which was not what this was about.
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