The Post Office Horizon system and Seema Misra

Abstract

The author highlights the significance of the Seema Misra case in raising questions about the reliablity of the Post Office Horizon system and more widely suggesting that all digital systems have the possibility of latent defects, and these can never be discounted. He argues that when the efficacy of digital systems is called into question in legal proceedings, the onus of proof must be placed on the supplier of these systems and not the accuser.

Index words: Post Office; Horizon; prosecutions; software errors; disclosure

Full transcript of the trial Regina v Seema Misra, T2009007 (England & Wales; theft; electronic evidence; Post Office Horizon System; ‘reliability’ of computers) with case commentary and index to original papers held in the Documents Supplement of Volume 12: 2015.