More potential victims of the Capture scandal have come forward following confirmation from the Government that the software – rolled out to branches in the 90s – was faulty. It has set up a new compensation scheme for victims which will open this autumn.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which is the only body with the power to take cases back to the courts, told The i Paper it is now dealing with 29 cases which pre-date Horizon and 25 have been appointed “case review managers” who are “actively investigating” their cases.
Although the Post Office has expressed “concerns” about potential wrongful convictions that predate Horizon, it has never formally admitted that evidence used in Capture cases may have been flawed.
The Capture software was rolled out to Post Office branches starting in 1992The software was written in-house by the Post Office’s IT team and The i Paper obtained bulletins from the 90s in which postmasters were warned it was prone to bugs and glitches.
While Capture victims welcomed the news, there remains concern for those who received criminal convictions and want them to be overturned.
Ministers agreed to the unprecedented move because it was taking so long for the courts to deal with the volume of cases they faced.
CCRC under pressure after recent failures
The CCRC remains under pressure over its performance after a string of high-profile miscarriages of justice which took decades to resolve.
The CCRC, which recently appointed Dame Vera Baird as its new interim chairwoman, was accused of failing Mr Sullivan by not doing enough work to establish there was pivotal DNA evidence which cleared him.
The situation is all the more frustrating for Capture victims after an IT expert who was due to give evidence about the system’s faults back in 1998 came forward.
His report at the time described Capture as “quite capable of producing absurd gibberish”, and has “several insidious faults… which would not be necessarily apparent to the user”.
The evidence has now been handed over to the CCRC by the family of Ms Owen, who died in 2003.
“There’s an overwhelming amount of evidence that our convictions are unsafe,” he told The i Paper.
“It should be pretty much an open and shut case – I really don’t see why there should be much of a hold up.”
‘Give CCRC a cut-off date to get cases in court’
Steve Marston was prosecuted by the Post Office in 1998 (Photo: Tom Pilston/The i Paper)Last year he tabled an amendment which suggested a new clause could be added to the existing Horizon laws.
“There should be a cut-off date [for the CCRC],” he added.
The Department for Business and Trade yesterday reiterated its position that “those with criminal convictions related to Capture should pursue their cases through the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) or its Scottish equivalent”.
square POST OFFICE SCANDAL ‘I’m a second Post Office scandal victim - we deserve compensation before we die’
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“We have issued notices under section 17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 to Post Office Ltd requiring them to produce all material relating to the applications received. To date, POL have provided some material in relation to 17 of the cases and confirmed that they hold no material in relation to another 5. The CCRC is awaiting a response from POL in relation to 6 cases.”
“We are determined that past wrongs are put right and continue to support the Government’s work as well as fully cooperate with the CCRC.
“We are in regular discussions with them including in relation to the six cases they have mentioned.”
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