We’re learning more about a how an innocent woman went to jail – and we’re hearing more from the man whose job it was to investigate her.

Longman is asked by the counsel to the inquiry about the defence team for Seema Misra asking to see Fujitsu transaction log data. The Post Office at the time said getting this data would cost £15,000. Longman is asked if cost was an issue.

Longman says the request for transaction logs was rejected.

He is also asked about other challenges to the Horizon system which were happening at the time.

The counsel to the inquiry shows an email written at the time he was investigating Misra - in which Longman says he's concerned that of they drop the charge of theft, it might encourage more people to raise challenges about the integrity of the Horizon computer system.

Image source, Post Office Inquiry

Blake shows an e-mail by Dave Posnett, Longman's line manager at some point and fraud risk manager at another time, sent on February 2010. He asks if Longman is aware of what defence teams did to challenge Horizon in prosecution cases.

Longman says when Misra's defence team came to court first time, they brought an article from The Grocer, a computer weekly, and confirms that it alerted him that there were more challenges than he thought to Horizon.

Blake repeates that in 2010, there were growing number of cases challenging Horizon and asks what Longman did with this information. Longman says "I don't recall."

When asked if he had concerns about growing number of these challenges, Longman insists that he "was always told Horizon was robust," and adds: "So no, I didn't."

Now Blake's line of questioning turns to bugs and errors in the Horizon system, specifically those which impacted Seema Misra's case.

Starting with an email sent on 28 January, 2010, to Penny Thomas, who Longman refers to as the "doorway into Fujitsu".

In the email, Longman tells her his barrister informed him to find out any information Fujitsu may hold in relation to Callendar Square Post Office.

It goes on to say that Anne Chambers, from Fujitsu, had "full knowledge" of an error in the system at that Post Office.

Blake asks if Longman was aware that the Callendar Square bug was one that could cause discrepancies.

He says he became aware of it as the case progressed, but had no knowledge about it until it was mentioned in the case of West Byfleet.

Longman is then asked if he was aware by 2010 of any cases challenging the Horizon system. He says a colleague had a case that was going on, and that was potentially a challenge to the system.

He adds that he thinks there were rumours about other cases where that challenged it, but that no bugs had been identified and Callender Square was the first time he was made aware there was a bug.

Ex-Post Office investigator Jon Longman is now asked about his training.

He says he was sent on a residential course in Milton Keynes for new investigators.

Prior to the course he was given modules and work manuals covering different areas of investigation.

He is asked if there was a focus during training on the Horizon system. Longman answers no.

He also says during his 12-13 years in the role there was "not a significant period of training" when asked if he was offered refresher courses.

"There are things I wish had been done differently," says Longman.

He is being asked by lawyer Blake about his view of the Josephine Hamilton case - she is a sub-postmistress who was wrongly convicted.

He says on reflection he wished he had obtained more data.

Longman adds that there were disclosure requests that didn't get actioned that should have been actioned.

Blake asks him if he would have thought harder about how much disclosure to give to defendants, and Longman says the disclosure he gave was about right.

Ben Hatton
Live reporter

Usually the inquiry hears evidence in person, but Longman is speaking via video link today.

Longman’s face appears on large screens around the room. Sir Wyn Williams is also here via video link, appearing on a large screen at the front of the room. But counsel for the inquiry Julian Blake is here, standing at the front and directing his questions to a large screen.

The mood in the room is quiet, business-like. It’s not-frills, plain walls - white or blue - office chairs and plenty of suits.

The public seating area is mostly empty today, but there are still a lot of people here - more than 30. Mostly legal professionals. The quick patter of typing fills in the pauses between questions.

Counsel Julian Blake brings up Longman's witness statement and asks if at the time of Seema Misra's case, Longman didn't realise that he had the title of disclosure officer.

"That is correct, I dealt with the disclosure but I didn't know I had that official title of disclosure official," Longman confirms.

Jon Longman's witness statement says at the time he didn't consider a challenge to the Horizon system in one case to be relevant to other cases.

When asked again, Longman confirms that's correct. He goes on to say: "If a bug had been discovered and then obviously it would be relevant."

He then gives the example of a case where a software bug had been identified but it was an isolated bug so it didn't have any bearing on the case, he says.

Simon Jack
Business editor

Important amendment from Jon Longman.

He originally said he had never been involved in a case where Horizon was identified as the potential source of errors - but amends that to say he was involved in a case in which Jennifer O'Dell said Horizon was the source of the discrepancies.

Julian Blake, counsel to the inquiry, starts off by asking Longman, who is appearing remotely, to confirm some of his personal details and his career history with the Post Office.

Longman says he wants to make some amendments, such as his role in the case of Jennifer O'Dell, and other minor changes to dates.

He tells the inquiry he joined the Post Office's security team in 2000 until late 2011 or early 2012, before transferring to another team.

He says he left the Post Office for a number reasons, with redundancies being one of them.

As a reminder, Longman, a former Post Office investigator, was involved in the case of former sub-postmaster Seema Misra, who was wrongly convicted and jailed. This is likely to come up over the course of his questioning later.

Image source, Post Office Inquiry

Former Post Office investigator Jon Longman is being sworn in. He's appearing remotely due to medical reasons, the inquiry hears.

He will be facing questions today about what went wrong in the high profile case of Seema Misra. He was the investigator in her case.

She was wrongly convicted of stealing £70,000 from her Post Office in Surrey and jailed while pregnant in 2010. She gave birth wearing an electronic tag.

We'll find out more about how this miscarriage of justice happened when he hear from Longman shortly.

You can follow today's hearing live by heading to the top of this page and tapping play at the top of the page.

We'll also be bringing you the key news lines in text format.

Ben Hatton
Live reporter, at the inquiry

I’ve just spoken with Seema Misra, who is here at the inquiry today to listen.

She was wrongly convicted of stealing from her Post Office branch in Surrey. She served four-and-a-half months, but her conviction has now been overturned.

She told me she tries to come to the inquiry regularly, and if she’s not here she will watch the live stream from home.

But Misra is particularly interested to be here today to hear evidence from former Post Office investigator John Longman.

“He was my investigating officer. I remember clearly because he was there on the day I was suspended” she tells me.

She says she “wants to get some truth”, but adds it’s a shame Longman is not coming in person, noting he is due to give evidence via video link.

“Let’s see what he’s got to say,” she says.

Image source, PA Media

Today's session will start with evidence from former Post Office investigator Jon Longman. He was involved with the case of Seema Misra.

It was her eldest son’s 10th birthday and Seema Misra was pregnant with her second child when she was sent to prison.

The former sub-postmistress had been wrongly convicted of stealing £70,000 from her Post Office branch in the village of West Byfleet in Surrey. Misra served four-and-a-half months, and gave birth to her second son wearing an electronic tag.

At the time of her prosecution in 2010, the then managing director of the Post Office, David Smith, welcomed her conviction as “brilliant news” in an email to colleagues - a remark he apologised for while giving evidence at the inquiry.

One of 700 sub-postmasters and postmistresses prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 for theft and false accounting, Misra’s conviction has since been overturned. But her story is just one example of how the Horizon IT scandal has damaged lives.

Let's remind ourselves of the basics when it comes to how this story unfolded.

More than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted on charges including theft and false accounting due to a faulty IT software - developed by Fujitsu - called Horizon, in what has been called the UK's most widespread miscarriage of justice.

The Post Office itself took many cases to court, prosecuting 700 people between 1999 and 2015. Another 283 cases were brought by other bodies, including the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Some went to prison and others were financially ruined.

In 2017, a group of 555 sub-postmasters took legal action against the Post Office via the High Court. Two years later, it agreed to pay them £58m in compensation, but much of the money went on legal fees.

A draft report uncovered by the BBC shows the Post Office spent £100m fighting the group in court despite knowing its defence was untrue. The Post Office said it would be "inappropriate" to comment.

Although campaigners won the right for cases to be reconsidered, only 95 convictions had been overturned by mid-January 2024.

Image source, PA Media

The Post Office inquiry heard from two former executives at the company, with their evidence focusing largely on what they knew about the Horizon IT system. Let’s take a look at what they said:

• David Miller, a former managing director of the Post Office, said he regretted a "missed opportunity" in 2004 when he did not read a report by an IT expert (ordered in the case of former sub-postmistress Julie Wolstenholme) which found Horizon to be "clearly defective" - acknowledging that if he had done so he could have taken action to address the issues
• A lawyer representing a group of sub-postmasters asked Miller if he was "incompetent" or "lying through [his] teeth" about not having read the report - he denied he was lying
• Minutes of a meeting in 1999 showed that Miller had told the board that Horizon was "robust" - despite issues having already been flagged - something he conceded he should not have said
• David Mills, who took over as CEO in 2002 and left at the end of 2005, acknowledged the Horizon system was integral to how the Post Office was operating during his tenure, saying it would have been "crisis mode" if the company had to go back to the drawing board on the system
• He highlighted serious financial challenges facing the Post Office when he was CEO, saying he inherited a "burning ship" and that his priority at the time was saving the business
• Mills said he was not aware the Post Office could prosecute its workers until almost the end of his time there

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

Today’s session kicks off with former Post Office investigator Jon Longman.

He should’ve given evidence in phase four but his appearance was delayed due to late disclosure of documents by the Post Office.

He was involved in Seema Misra’s case, who was wrongly convicted and jailed while pregnant in 2010.

We’ve already heard a lot about the failures in her high-profile case. He’ll face questions about it, too.

Then we’ll hear from City grandee Allan Leighton, who became chairman of Royal Mail in 2002.

For most of his lengthy stint, he was a double act with former CEO Adam Crozier. They were tasked with modernising the business. Leighton led the board before it split from the Post Office.

He left before the first media report in Computer Weekly on the Horizon scandal. What did he know about the Horizon problems?

Ben Hatton
Live reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Good morning. I’m here at Aldwych House in central London for the latest evidence session in the ongoing Post Office Horizon IT inquiry.

We’ll be providing rolling updates and analysis throughout the day, as well as giving a bit of background on the wider issues.

First to take questions today is former Post Office investigator Jon Longman, who we’re expecting to hear from at about 10:00 BST.

Then later on it will be the turn of former Post Office chairman Allan Leighton - a familiar name in the business world, having also served as CEO of Asda and currently in post as chairman of Pizza Express.

Stay with us for updates.