By M10News Legal Affairs Desk
At least 13 individuals may have taken their own lives due to the devastating fallout from the Post Office Horizon scandal, a landmark public inquiry has found.
Sir Wyn Williams, chair of the public inquiry into what has become known as the worst miscarriage of justice in British legal history, revealed that an additional 59 victims contemplated suicide after being wrongly accused of wrongdoing because of faulty Horizon accounting software.
His interim report, published this week, lays bare the harrowing human toll of the scandal and the systemic failures that allowed it to continue unchecked for years. Between 1999 and 2015, approximately 1,000 people were wrongly prosecuted and convicted across the UK, with dozens more accused but not convicted, the inquiry heard.
Despite walking free from court, many were left stigmatised and isolated in their communities.
“This report shows the full scale of the horror that they unleashed on us,” said Jo Hamilton, a former subpostmistress and key campaigner for justice.
The inquiry estimates that up to 10,000 people may be eligible to submit compensation claims.
Harrowing Deaths and Missed Warnings
One victim, Martin Griffiths, 59, took his own life in September 2013 after enduring years of stress caused by discrepancies he couldn’t explain. Despite pleading for help from the Post Office’s IT support team, Griffiths was told his contract would be terminated just months before his death.
The inquiry found he had also been blamed for losses during a robbery at his branch in Hope Farm, Cheshire — a traumatic event in which he was physically injured.
Sir Wyn noted there was a “real possibility” that at least 13 suicides were directly linked to the scandal, and that more cases may not have yet been reported.
“I cannot make a definitive finding,” Sir Wyn said, “but I do not rule it out as a real possibility.”
Evidence of Corporate Negligence
The 162-page report is scathing in its criticism of both the Post Office and the government. Sir Wyn concluded that multiple senior figures either knew — or should have known — that the Horizon system was unreliable.
“Yet for all practical purposes,” he wrote, “the Post Office maintained the fiction that its data was always accurate.”
The report slammed the “unnecessarily adversarial” stance taken by the Post Office and its legal advisers toward victims seeking redress. It said the UK Government had “failed to grasp” the complexity of providing timely, fair compensation.
Sir Wyn also criticised the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS), highlighting “egregious delays” in payments and a lack of transparency in its operations.
He recommended that victims under the HSS be given access to free legal advice and called for an independent public body to take over the administration of compensation.
Another of his 19 recommendations was that those submitting claims under the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme should be eligible for the fixed £600,000 payout, even if they had already submitted detailed claims of their own.
Government Response
Business Minister Gareth Thomas expressed “sympathy” with the findings, pledging that the Government would respond before the October 10 deadline set by Sir Wyn.
“Blameless people were impoverished, bankrupted, stressed beyond belief, lost their jobs, their marriages, their reputations, their mental health — in some cases, their lives,” Mr Thomas told Parliament.
He confirmed the Government would carefully consider all 19 recommendations from the report, some of which relate to the ongoing redress schemes.
Post Office Apology
In response to the report, the Post Office said: “The inquiry has brought to life the devastating stories of those impacted by the Horizon scandal. Their experiences represent a shameful period in our history. We apologise unreservedly.”
Post Office Chairman Nigel Railton vowed: “I will do everything in my power to make sure that affected postmasters receive the redress they are entitled to, as soon as possible.”
Sir Wyn’s final and full report into the Horizon scandal is expected later this year.
Editing by M10News Legal Desk | Contact: legal@m10news.com
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