Hello
How’s your evening going? Mine’s been spent writing up a load of Words on Worden and other Horizon-related things.
Today’s collated tweets are here.
Do please have a quick squiz at them if you feel so moved.
Court is now not sitting until 1 July for two days of closing arguments and then that’s your lot. However there are plenty of case management conferences for November’s trial to keep me occupied before the Horizon judgment gets handed down (sometime in the autumn) and there’s also the possibility the Court of Appeal accepts the Post Office’s request on the Common Issues judgment, which will mean more court dates.
Friday notes
I was remarking the public gallery was very quiet today when around 12 people marched in during proceedings, sat down and started listening intently. Twenty minutes later they got up and marched off. Wrong trial.
Also my thanks to Jo Hamilton and Sue Knight, claimants who updated me on their own positions. I know my emails, tweets and blog posts can be flippant or glib sometimes, but when you speak to people who have waited up to 20 years, struggled to get to court (Sue Knight got a train from Penzance at 5.30 this morning, arrived in court late and had to leave early to do the return journey – a 12 hour round trip) or who are now living in rented accommodation, with no assets or savings, mental health problems and other illnesses, it really does help refocus the mind. I’ll walk away from reporting this litigation and go on to another job. Hundreds of people don’t have that luxury.
Howlingly sensible Murdoch
Finally, I didn’t put it in today’s report, but it’s worth reading Professor Steven Murdoch’s take on the statistical approach to investigating Horizon. Prof Murdoch has taken a very keen interesting in the trial (in fact – I think he might be a secret emailer). His twitter bio says he’s a Royal Society Research fellow, and Patrick Green QC actually used one of his analogies in court yesterday. Which is unusual.
Thanks to everyone who has been emailing me information during this trial – a wonderful side effect of sending these missives is what I get from secret emailers and their connections in response. Every single email is read and many are fascinating. As I’ve said before – documents are very, very helpful, even if they don’t immediately see the light of day, I’m reasonably sure there will soon be a huge appetite for this story, and feeding the news beast could become quite demanding.
Maybe that’s my natural sunny Friday optimism shining through.
Have a great weekend
Nick