Morning all

I spent the day yesterday in the dock of court 1 of the Old Bailey, which wasn’t something I was expecting..

It’s the venue for the London Bridge/Borough Market terror attack inquest. There is a huge dock in the centre of the court and for some reason reporters have to sit there. As you climb up into the dock, you get a very good view of the other stairs which lead downwards along a white-tiled passage to the cells. It made me shiver every time I walked past it.

The inquest itself was fascinating. We heard, minute by-minute (and sometime in subsections of minutes) how the duty Met Commander in charge at the time of the attacks and his colleague – the armed response commander sitting close to him – reacted to events from the Met’s Special Operations Room in Lambeth, as mayhem was unfolding a couple of miles away. It was a real eye-opener, not so much into what happened, but the preparation and processes put in place for when something bad happens and the way they perform when called upon for real. There are some very well-drilled, experienced individuals keeping us safe at night, and a lot went right, but some significant things went wrong – largely due to information overload. Anyway – I’m not here to write about that. I’m back at the High Court today for…

The Green Machine

Today the JFSA will try to go on the front foot. I had the Post Office just ahead on points every day last week until Friday, when the claimants expert IT witness ended up on the ropes being knocked around for fun. It was unpleasant to witness, and I suspect it wasn’t very pleasant to experience, either for Mr Coyne, his reputation or the JFSA legal team who I suspect will have been working very hard over the weekend to turn things round.

If they haven’t – well, I admire their confidence. It is something Mr Patrick Green, QC for the claimants, has in spades. He is a charming, friendly, somewhat dashing presence in the courtroom, and there is no denying he has done a superb job for the claimants up to now.

I think he is going to have to call on every resource at his disposal to find himself anywhere close to the position Mr de Garr Robinson (QC for the Post Office) was in at the end of last week.

I’m personally looking forward to getting hold of Dr Robert Worden’s reports (he is the Post Office’s independent IT expert) and seeing how he performs under the Mr Green’s cross-examination.

Karl Flinders, journalist for Computer Weekly, has informed me he will be present today, and I’m sure I’ll see some familiar faces in the public gallery. Proceeding start at 10.30am in court 26 of the Rolls Building.

I’ll be live tweeting here, then I’ll collate those tweets into one document thanks to the wonder of Thread Reader, write everything up for you on www.postofficetrial.com as soon as I am able and post the transcript when I receive it.

Have a great day.

Nick

PS The train guard has just come up and introduced himself. I apologised for not being able to chat as I had this preview to write. “About the Post Office, is it?” he asked “I look forward to reading that later, then”, and wandered off.

Maybe he’s a secret emailer. If so – hello Martin from South Western Railways. Thanks for getting me to court.