Former Whitby sub-postmaster 'looking forward' to some closure
This week has seen the start of a public inquiry into false prosecutions of workers between 2000 and 2014
A former subpostmaster from Whitby has told us he is looking forward to finally getting some kind of closure.
This week has seen the start of a public inquiry into the false prosecutions of hundreds of workers when computer glitches wrongly suggested money was missing.
They were accused of theft, fraud and false accounting.
Between 2000 and 2014, more than 700 subpostmasters and subpostmistresses (SPMs) were prosecuted based on information from the Horizon IT system, installed and maintained by Fujitsu.
However, in December 2019 a High Court judge ruled that Horizon contained a number of "bugs, errors and defects" and there was a "material risk" that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.
After nearly 20 years Chris Trousdale's conviction was overturned. He said: "We hope the public inquiry can now get to the bottom of this scandal. The people that knew and actioned things that put all these people's lives in jeopardy we now need the answers to make sure they're held to account.
"What we want to see now from the inquiry is answers. We need the truth to finally be put out there. Unfortunately the Post Office and the other players in this scandal have lawyers. We just hope they do the right thing, the cover up is undone and they come forward with the people responsible for this finally being held to account.
"We really, really hope that the future will show true justice to all the victims. The affects on people can't be quantified as you're talking about destroying the lives of over 3,000 post office workers."
The inquiry, which is expected to run for the rest of this year, will look into whether the Post Office knew about faults in the IT system and will also ask how staff were made to take the blame.
Jason Beer QC, counsel to the inquiry, said during his opening that the ordeal of those affected could be concluded as "the worst miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history".