Post Office victims/survivors and their families have experienced deep trauma and can be left feeling revictimised, a study by UCL and University of Exeter researchers shows.
The report, which was based on interviews with 26 former sub-postmasters, six of their partners, two of their children and one sibling, found that their and their families' lives continue to be very badly affected by the scandal.
The Post Office's Horizon IT computer scandal is widely regarded as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses and others were prosecuted for offences such as theft, fraud and false accounting, with some going to prison. Thousands more lost their businesses, livelihoods and homes due to wrongful accusations made by the Post Office.
It later emerged that a faulty computer system, called Horizon, as well as corporate incompetence and potentially problematic lawyering, were to blame. The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry is due to report back later this year.
Last year, ITV broadcast a Bafta-winning drama about the scandal, called Mr Bates vs The Post Office, prompting a public outcry.
Now a report co-written by Dr Karen Nokes (UCL Faculty of Laws) and Dr Sally Day, Professor Richard Moorhead and Professor Rebecca Helm from the University of Exeter, as part of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded Post Office Project, has revealed the full scale of the victims' and their families' suffering.
The authors of the report, called Understanding the Impacts of the Post Office Scandal, are calling for a "rethink" of how miscarriages of justice are dealt with, both from a political and legal perspective.
Concerns about proper and fair compensation were critical for many of the sub-postmasters interviewed, but their concerns were also much broader and included for many:
- Wanting to see criminal convictions for those involved from the Post Office.
- Those involved being barred from holding senior management or oversight roles in future.
- Financial consequences, such as paying back bonuses or losing pensions.
- Lawyers involved in their prosecutions to be struck off.
- Participation in meaningful restorative justice.
Dr Nokes said: "Many sub-postmasters went from being highly respected and central to their local community to being publicly vilified, and labelled a thief, for something they hadn't done.
