ChaoticMusings

This is an absolute disgrace.

Vindicated former postmasters shed tears of joy and opened bottles of champagne outside the Royal Courts of Justice today as 39 men and women had their convictions for stealing money from the Post Office quashed after hundreds were bankrupted, sacked or jailed in one of Britain's biggest miscarriages of justice.

Hundreds of innocent Post Office staff were blamed for losses in branch accounts caused by serious flaws in the Fujitsu-developed Horizon computer system which was in use between 1999 and 2015.

Rather than admit the IT system was defective, the Post Office concealed evidence of the glitches and instead forced its own staff to plead guilty to crimes they knew they had not committed, lawyers representing the 42 who sought to get their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal said.

Many postmasters and postmistresses were prosecuted for theft, fraud and false accounting, while others were hounded out of work or forced to pay huge sums of 'missing' money. The scandal blighted their lives, as former staff lost their homes and marriages, and suffered ill health as a result.  

One former postmaster, Martin Griffiths, killed himself after he was falsely suspected of stealing £60,000, while some have since died and 'gone to their graves' with convictions against their names.  

In a landmark ruling at the Court of Appeal today, Lord Justice Holroyde said the Post Office 'knew there were serious issues about the reliability of Horizon' but 'consistently asserted [it] was robust and reliable', and 'effectively steamrolled over any subpostmaster who sought to challenge its accuracy'. 

Outside the courts, former postmasters and postmistresses and their friends and families celebrated the historic event. Noel Thomas, who spent nearly a year in jail in 2006 after being accused of stealing from the Post Office in Gaerwen on Anglesey, burst into tears as he was embraced by his daughter Sian. 

'It has been a long, long time. It's a big weight off everyone's shoulders really,' he said.

Tom Hedges, who was convicted of theft and false accounting and given a seven-month suspended sentence in 2011, opened a bottle of prosecco and bellowed: 'It's a wonderful afternoon. When I told my mother, who's 93, I was coming to court she said 'get yourself down to Aldi and get some prosecco'. She said: 'Just remember your name is Hedges not Rothschild, so get prosecco, not Bollinger!'' 

Tracy Felstead, who was sentenced to six months' imprisonment in a young offender institution in 2002, when she was just 19, cried when she heard that her conviction was being overturned.

Ms Felstead, 38, said she was 'over the moon' by the ruling but remains 'angry that it even got this far and they have been allowed to do this'. She added that anyone who 'genuinely knew what was going on and they tried to cover it up' should face criminal prosecution themselves. 

For others, the victory was bittersweet. Julian Wilson, who ran a post office in Astwood Bank, Worcestershire, died before his name was cleared. His widow Karen Wilson, 66, said: 'I promised him I would kept on fighting. And today those judges said he was right. I'm not brave but this was such a massive wrong. 

'For 13 years I have lived and breathed it. We almost lost everything.' Mr Wilson's daughter, Emma Jones, 47, said: 'This is a bittersweet day for us. Very unjust, very unfair.'

Harjinder Butoy, subpostmaster in Nottingham who was convicted of theft and jailed for three years and four months in 2008, described the Post Office as 'a disgrace' after his conviction was overturned.He said his conviction and imprisonment 'destroyed my life for 14 years - that's not going to be replaced', and said those responsible for the scandal 'need to be punished, seriously punished'.  

In a statement after the ruling, Post Office chairman Tim Parker issued a grovelling apology for 'the impact on the lives of these postmasters and their families that was caused by historical failures'.

The Post Office had spent £32million to deny any fault in Horizon before capitulating and has since paid a £58million settlement to 557 postmasters following an acrimonious High Court battle. It now faces a further 2,400 claims under a new compensation scheme.  

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9502925/Post-Office-scandal-Dozens-staff-today-convictions-quashed.html