Post Office scandal: Widow of exonerated sub-postmaster wants to know why investigator ignored his ‘good record’
The widow of a sub-postmaster who was convicted as part of the Post Office scandal says she wants to know why the investigator ignored his “good record” – with her husband having been a police officer for 12 years before he started running the shop in Newcastle.
Marion Holmes spoke to Sky News as she prepares to see Robert Daily, the former Post Office investigator who brought criminal proceedings against her husband Peter, appear before the public inquiry into the scandal today.
Mr Holmes had been a sub-postmaster at Jesmond Post Office for 13 years when he was accused of stealing £46,000 in 2008.
He was one of more than 700 sub-postmasters who were prosecuted over claims they were stealing from the Post Office – but the missing money was actually due to errors in the Horizon software, which was developed by Fujitsu.
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Fujitsu boss apologises to sub-postmasters
The ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which was broadcast earlier this month, has raised the profile of the inquiry and the injustice suffered by the hundreds of sub-postmasters.
Mr Holmes’ case went to court in 2010, with the Post Office saying they would drop the theft charge if he pleaded guilty to false accounting.
The former police officer agreed and was given a three-month curfew, where he was only allowed to be out of the house between 7am and 7pm, as part of his community order sentence.
Mr Holmes died of a brain tumour in 2015 aged 68 – six years before he was exonerated in April 2021.
Peter Holmes was exonerated in 2021
Asked by Sky presenter Sarah-Jane Mee on her show The UK Tonight what she wants to hear from Mr Daily when he appears at the inquiry, Mrs Holmes said on Monday: “Why he didn’t listen to the fact that Peter had a good record, an ex-policeman?
“Nobody believed him, I just wish somebody had just listened to him.
“It was obvious he wasn’t guilty… Nobody that knew Peter ever thought that he was guilty.”
Ms Holmes also remembered her husband’s “hurt” after seeing a newspaper article which read “ex-policeman guilty of false accounting”.
She continued: “I think that was what really hurt him because it was just there in black and white.”
Recalling the moment her husband first told her of the allegation against him, Mrs Holmes said: “That was like a bombshell.
“But we never thought that anything would come of it because we knew he was innocent.”
Read more:
Sub-postmasters say Horizon system ‘still causing mystery shortfalls’
Fujitsu manager called wrongly-accused sub-postmaster a ‘nasty chap’
Police probe to decide on Post Office scandal charges to take two years
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‘My business is failing’
Mrs Holmes also talked about the stress her husband was under while he was investigated by the Post Office and the police.
She said: “We knew there was something wrong… my daughter and I could hear him throwing up in the bathroom.
“But when we asked him what was wrong, he said ‘Oh, nothing. I was just coughing.'”
Asked what it was like for her husband, a retired police officer, to be convicted of a crime, Mrs Holmes said: “It just shut him down. Fortunately, the day that we came out of court, a friend said go on to the computer and type in ‘Post Office problems’.
“So straight away we heard of Alan Bates and the JFSA (Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance) and that weekend we had to go down there, they were having a meeting down at a solicitors down in Bedford… we already by then knew that there were several others (who had been accused).
“That helped us a lot because when we sat around the room and everybody told their story, they were almost all identical.”
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The real Mr Bates speaks to MPs
Mrs Holmes said she feels “sad” her husband wasn’t exonerated until after his death, adding: “But it can’t be changed, so there’s no point in dwelling on it.”
The widow also said she wishes Mr Holmes was here to see “what is happening now” since the ITV drama raised the profile of the miscarriage of justice, with the hundreds of Post Office scandal victims to be exonerated and compensated.
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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