Victims in Post Office scandal demand criminal prosecutions for those in charge
A group of sub-postmasters wrongly accused of stealing more than £100,000 from the Post Office have told Sky News there must be criminal prosecutions against those in charge.
Vipin Patel, Nicki Arch and Sarah Osolinski, who ran Post Offices in Oxford, Stroud and Cheltenham respectively, have described how their lives were destroyed by the Horizon IT scandal.
Mrs Osolinski said those in charge at the Post Office must be held to account.
“There are people with questions to answer. People that lied to the High Court. People that lied to the government and that’s got to be a crime. If what we did was a crime, then what they did is 100 times worse because they were the ones that punished us for trying to keep our heads above water.”
Mr Patel was given an 18-week suspended sentence in 2011 after being charged with stealing £75,000 while running Horspath Post Office.
His conviction was quashed in 2020.
“I had to borrow some money off my sister – about £10,000 – I had to cash in my Royal Mail pension and then we had to sell my wife’s gold to balance the books,” he said.
He described the moment Post Office auditors visited his shop: “I went upstairs and said ‘God, I want to die, I don’t want to live anymore’ – because I knew the repercussions of this were going to be catastrophic and disastrous.”
Mr Patel says he is yet to receive any compensation.
Nicki Arch was wrongly accused of stealing £26,000. She was sacked and faced a three-day trial at Bristol Crown Court in 2002. She was found not guilty.
“They’re corrupt to the core,” she said of the Post Office.
“They’ve lied and behaved disgustingly from the day this all came about. You think, it’s 24 years for me and I’ve never, ever seen any decent behaviour coming from them.”
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‘They made me look like a criminal’
She is also calling for bosses at the centre of the inquiry to face criminal charges.
“All those who broke the law must see British law, they must be prosecuted because that’s what we do in this country.”
But Nicki explained that the Post Office can never fully compensate for the impact it has had on her.
“Within two weeks it was all in the local newspapers that I’d stolen from pensioners, and I got spat at in the supermarket. So I just shut myself in for 18 months and never, ever went out. And you can’t behave like that and it not have a lifetime effect on you.
“It changes you forever and there is no going back. You just learn to live. Every morning I wake up and think ‘great, new day’ and then think ‘oh God, Post Office’.
“The pain will always be there, the memories will always be there… the screaming, the shouting, we have lived through horrific times, suicidal times.”
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Mrs Osolinski ran a post office near Newport, South Wales. She explained how she would cover shortfalls of between £90 and £1,000 every week for two years.
She was forced to sell her home and use all her life savings.
“I’m left now as a retired person of 67 with chronic pain, depression, anxiety – all because I was trying to do my job. You just carry on,” she added.
“I get flashbacks to the time and they’re not pleasant and I do think about it a lot and how different it would be and what I would be doing now.
“Because being a postmaster or postmistress is like being at the centre of a huge extended family because you get to know your customers, you get to care about your customers. They get to care about you.”
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Mr Patel said the Post Office was always a brand built on trust.
“The biggest thing the Post Office has done is broken the trust of the people who served them – and they have stabbed us in the back.”
Last week the government announced plans to overturn the convictions of more than 900 people involved in the scandal, as well as a new compensation payout of £75,000 – although it acknowledges this may not be enough for many.
The ongoing public inquiry is due to publish its findings next year.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
UK
Pictured: Boy killed in Gateshead industrial estate fire – 14 children arrested on suspicion of manslaughter
Tributes have been paid to 14-year-old Layton Carr who died in a fire at an industrial estate.
Eleven boys and three girls, aged between 11 and 14 years, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after the incident in Gateshead on Friday. They remain in police custody.
Police were alerted to a fire at Fairfield industrial park in the Bill Quay area
Firefighters raced to Fairfield industrial park in the Bill Quay area shortly after 8pm, putting out the blaze a short time later.
Police then issued an appeal for a missing boy, Layton Carr, who was believed to be in the area at the time.
In a statement, the force said that “sadly, following searches, a body believed to be that of 14-year-old Layton Carr was located deceased inside the building”.
Layton’s next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers, police added.
Layton has been described as a ‘beautiful soul’
A fundraising page on GoFundMe has been set up to help Layton’s mother pay for funeral costs.
Organiser Stephanie Simpson said: “The last thing Georgia needs to stress trying to pay for a funeral for her Boy Any donations will help thank you.”
One tribute in a Facebook post read: “Can’t believe I’m writing this my nephew RIP Layton 💔 forever 14 you’ll be a massive miss, thinking of my sister and 2 beautiful nieces right now.”
Another added: “My boy ❤️ my baby cousin, my Layton. Nothing will ever come close to the pain I feel right now. Forever 14. I’ll miss you sausage.”
A third said: “Rest in peace big lad such a beautiful soul taken far to soon my thoughts are with you Gee stay strong girl hear for u always.”
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Detective Chief Inspector Louise Jenkins, of Northumbria Police, also said: “This is an extremely tragic incident where a boy has sadly lost his life.”
She added that the force’s “thoughts are with Layton’s family as they begin to attempt to process the loss of their loved one”.
They are working to establish “the full circumstances surrounding the incident” and officers will be in the area to “offer reassurance to the public”, she added.
A cordon remains in place at the site while police carry out enquiries.
Sky News can reveal that the government has rowed back on a national compensation scheme for victims of child sexual abuse, despite it being promised under the previous Conservative administration.
Warning – this story contains references to sexual and physical abuse
A National Redress Scheme was one of 20 key recommendations made by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), but a Home Office report reveals the government has scrapped it because of the cost.
Marie, who is 71, suffered alleged sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at Greenfield House Convent in St Helens, Merseyside, between 1959 and 1962, and is still fighting for compensation.
Greenfield House Convent, where Marie says she was abused
As soon as she arrived as a six-year-old, Marie says her hair was cut off, her name changed, and she experienced regular beatings from the nuns and students.
She claims a nun instigated the violence, including when Marie was held down so that her legs were “spread-eagled” as she was sexually abused with a coat hanger.
Merseyside Police investigated claims of abuse at the convent, but in 2016, a suspect died before charges could be brought.
Marie has received an apology from the Catholic body that ran the home; she tried to sue them, but her claim was rejected because it was filed too long after the alleged abuse.
Marie, 71, is still fighting for compensation for the abuse she says she suffered as a child
In February, ministers said the law would change for victims of sexual abuse trying to sue institutions for damages, which was a recommendation from the IICSA.
Previously, people had to make a civil claim before they were 21, unless the victim could prove a fair trial could proceed despite the time lapse.
Campaigners argued for the time limit to be removed as, on average, victims wait 26 years to come forward. Changes to the 1980 Limitation Act could lead to more people making claims.
Peter Garsden, President of The Association of Child Abuse Lawyers
Civil cases ‘can take three to five years’
But Peter Garsden, president of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers, worries that when it comes to historical abuse where the defendant is dead, institutions will still argue that it is impossible to have a fair trial and will fight to have the case thrown out of court.
Mr Garsden said it takes “between three and five years” for a civil case to get to trial.
He warned that claimants “can end up losing if you go through that process. Whereas the Redress Scheme would be quicker, much more straightforward, and much more likely to give justice to the victims”.
Victim awarded £10 compensation
Jimbo, who was a victim of abuse at St Aidan’s children’s home in Cheshire, took his case to the High Court twice and the Court of Appeal three times, but, after 13 years, all he ended up with was £10 for his bus fare to court.
Despite the Lord Justice of Appeal saying he believed that the abuse had occurred, Jimbo lost his claim because of the time limit for child sexual abuse claims to be made.
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Neither Marie nor Jimbo is likely to benefit from the removal of the time limit for personal injury claims, which is why Mr Garsden is calling on the government to implement a National Redress Scheme for victims of sexual abuse, as recommended by the IICSA.
Hundreds of millions paid to victims
The governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland have set up compensation schemes and paid hundreds of millions of pounds to victims.
In 2023, the then Conservative government said a similar scheme would be organised for England and Wales.
But the Home Office admitted in its Tackling Child Sexual Abuse: Progress Update that it “is not currently taking forward any further steps on the IICSA proposal for a separate, national financial redress scheme for all survivors of child sexual abuse”.
“In the current fiscal environment, this recommendation is very difficult to take forward,” it added.
For victims, the scheme was the last chance of compensation for a lifetime blighted by abuse.
“The money is about justice and about all the other people who have had to suffer this abuse,” Marie said.
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