By D. Maan, Jadetimes News
An Indian origin woman, wrongly imprisoned in the UK while pregnant, rejects apologies in a historic scandal. Read more on the injustice and its aftermath.
An Indian origin former manager of a Post Office in England, who was wrongly jailed while pregnant, has rejected the apology of an engineer whose evidence contributed to her conviction over faulty accounting software.
Seema Misra, now 47, had her conviction overturned in April 2021 after the Court of Appeal ruled that she had been wrongly imprisoned over 12 years ago. Misra had been accused of stealing GBP 75,000 from her Post Office branch in Surrey, where she was the sub postmistress. Reflecting on her ordeal, she said, "Nobody can understand it," and noted that Jenkins could have apologised “ages ago.”
Engineer's Apology
Her reaction came after Jenkins, in a written witness statement to the Post Office Inquiry, stated, "I did not know that Mrs Misra was pregnant at the time of her conviction and only learned of this many years later. This makes what has happened even more tragic. I can only apologise, again, to Mrs Misra and her family for what happened to her." Jenkins, a former engineer who served as an expert witness in 15 sub postmaster cases, is currently under police investigation for potential perjury or lying to a court. He has denied any wrongdoing in his earlier witness statements.
Apology from Former Post Office Managing Director
Ms Misra had earlier rejected a similar apology from former Post Office Managing Director David Smith, who had sent a congratulatory email to his team after Misra's conviction. Smith explained in his written evidence to the inquiry that the email was meant to commend his team for their hard work on the case. He expressed regret, acknowledging that the email would have caused substantial distress to Misra and her family. "Even if this had been a correct conviction, I would absolutely never think that it was ‘brilliant news' for a pregnant woman to go to prison, and I am hugely apologetic that my email can be read as such," Smith said.
Misra's Response
Misra, who was eight weeks pregnant when imprisoned, expressed that an apology was also owed to her youngest son. She recalled the lack of immediate apologies following her conviction being overturned, saying, "Nobody came at that time to apologise. And now they just suddenly realised that when they have to appear in a public inquiry, they have to apologise."
Prison Experience and Compensation
Misra was sent to Bronzefield prison in southeast England and served four and a half months, later giving birth to her second son while wearing an electronic tag. Smith told the inquiry that Misra had been used as a "test case," and the success of the case led to more confidence in the faulty Horizon IT accounting system. Misra responded angrily to this revelation, questioning how a human being could be used as a test case.
Government Response
The UK government, which formally owns Post Office Ltd, has paid millions in compensation to hundreds of sub postmasters affected by the faulty Horizon software. Earlier this year, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged action in the historic scandal that wrongly accused sub postmasters of fraud. Last month, Parliament introduced the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill, a blanket exoneration to quash convictions brought about by erroneous Horizon evidence. A public inquiry into the case, underway in a phased manner, is expected to conclude in July.
The Faulty Horizon System
The controversial Horizon system, developed by the Japanese company Fujitsu, was first rolled out in 1999 to some post offices for tasks including accounting and stocktaking. However, it had significant bugs, leading to misreporting and large financial discrepancies, as seen in the case of these sub postmasters.