Post Office lawyer ‘smelt a rat’ over BBC interview request

The inquiry continues to talk about why the Post Office was deliberately
supressing documents it felt would harm its defence.

The inquiry is shown an email which was sent to Williams which
suggests supressing certain documents about the PO’s investigating guidelines. This email suggested doing so in a way which looked legitimate to the outside world.

There is no record of Williams replying to it saying that was the wrong thing to do.

Williams tells in the inquiry he has no recollection of this email, and says this was inconsistent with his dealings
on this matter.

At this point inquiry chairman Sir Wyn Williams interjects.

“This email should have had a prompt response from you to
the effect of ‘you can’t possibly do that’” he tells Williams.

Williams replies that he was
dealing with another issue at the time which was very urgent.