First Witness Statement of Penelope Anne Thomas
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Witness Name: Penelope Anne
Thomas
Statement No.: 1
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Dated: 15 September 2023
POST OFFICE HORIZON IT INQUIRY
FIRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF PENELOPE ANNE THOMAS
I, Penelope Anne Thomas, will say as follows.
. My name is Penelope Anne Thomas. I provide this witness statement in
response to a Rule 9 Request dated 29 March 2023, submitted inaccordance
with the Inquiry Rules 2006 (the “Rule 9 Request’).
. In March 2013, I suffered two mini-strokes that have had a lasting effect on my
memory. I have not fully recovered from the strokes and I do not believe that I
ever will. I have very little independent recollection of the events of that time.
My inability to recall the events accurately, if at all, has made it incredibly
difficult to provide evidence, and the strain of doing so has had a significant
negative impact on both my physical and mental health.
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First Witness Statement of Penelope Anne Thomas
4. This statement covers the questions set out in the Rule 9 Request, answered
to the best of my ability.
(1) How did you become involved in providing witness statements to support
the Post Office in civil or criminal proceedings?
5. I took a job as a data retrieval person at Fujitsu in 2004 after a time away from
work.
6. At some stage, though I cannot recall exactly when, the role evolved to include
the provision of witness statements to the Post Office. I do not recall if this was
part of my job from the beginning, or if I knew before starting that the role would
involve the provision of witness statements.
7. I only gave evidence where there was a jury, which I now understand meant
that they were criminal proceedings.
(2) Who requested that you have such a role?
8. The Security Manager, Bill, who was my line manager at the time, requested
that I produce the witness statements. I cannot recall Bill's surname.
9. The first time that I gave evidence, possibly in Manchester, Bill drove me there.
(3) What were you told about the nature of the role in giving evidence in those
proceedings?
10.1 was told by Bill that I would be providing the witness statements to support
Post Office prosecutions.
11.1 believe that the purpose of my evidence was to provide an explanation of the
journey of the transaction at the post office counter on to the audit server and
then to explain the data retrieval process that I carried out to prepare a disc for
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First Witness Statement of Penelope Anne Thomas
court. I believe Bill explained this to me and I might have had more information
from others but I cannot specifically recall.
Statement of Truth
I believe the content of this statement to be true.
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