We didn’t hand over any of our WhatsApps, admits lawyer

THE Post Office provided ‘inaccurate and misleading’ information to the High Court and has not handed over WhatsApp messages to the inquiry, its lawyer admitted.

Christopher Jackson said he understands the ‘profound mistrust in many quarters’ following a litany of disclosure failings throughout the public hearings and outrage over the Horizon scandal.

He said the ‘challenge, complexities and problems’ the Post Office faced are ‘of a greatly different order’ to any he has experienced in more than 20 years as a solicitor.

But he insisted it was ‘unlikely’ that there had been ‘an attempt to withhold evidence’ from the public inquiry.

More than 5,000 viewers tuned in to watch the solicitor’s evidence despite Jason Beer KC, lead counsel to the inquiry, warning proceedings would be ‘rather dry’.

Mr Jackson said the Post Office had not handed over WhatsApp messages following a ‘questionnaire’ sent to ‘key custodians’ – though he could not name who these were. He said responses to the survey showed that staff only used the messaging app for ‘administrative purposes’ and not for ‘substantive discussions’, therefore there was no need to hand them over.

Mr Beer asked: ‘So if Paula Vennells was intending to attend a meeting, and was going to discuss with Angela van den Bogerd beforehand what to say and what not to say, she wouldn’t have used, on your understanding, WhatsApp to do so?’

Mr Jackson responded: ‘Based on the information we have, no, she wouldn’t.’

Mr Beer said: ‘It may be a surprise to a member of the public that nobody in the Post Office used WhatsApp to discuss issues of substance relating to the Horizon system.’ He also asked the solicitor if it would be ‘right to say’ that ‘accurate and to some extent misleading information’ was provided to the Court of Appeal and the inquiry.

Mr Jackson, who has represented the Post Office since September last year, agreed there was a replication of inaccuracies, referring to an important disclosure survey.

He also accepted that ‘the High Court and the claimants were given inaccurate information’ during civil proceedings.

The public inquiry has been beset with delays due to disclosure issues. The Post Office suddenly produced 5,000 documents on the evening of Horizon architect Gareth Jenkins’s first appearance to give testimony on July 6 last year.

His appearance was rescheduled for November 2023 but more than 3,000 documents were found by the Post Office days before his hearing and it was again delayed.

Mr Jenkins, a retired Fujitsu computer technician, is under police investigation for alleged perjury after he gave evidence as an expert witness at postmasters’ trials.

Addressing the disclosure issues in his statement, Mr Jackson said: ‘The current situation is not one that anyone would wish to see continue.’