The widow of a Post Office scandal victim, who received a compensation offer days after his death, has described the situation as an “utter disgrace”.

Janet Walters, 68, lost her husband Terry in February – a week before a letter arrived offering “less than half” of his original claim for financial redress.

Terry Walters – whose funeral is taking place today – was one of 555 sub-postmasters who won a legal battle against the Post Office in 2019.

Hundreds were falsely accused, and many wrongly convicted, of stealing from their branches between 1999 and 2015.

Janet has described the length of time many victims have had to wait for offers of compensation as another “scandal”.

“I’ve told them I will not accept [the offer],” Janet tells Sky News. “I think it’s an utter disgrace.

“Not when I look at him and I think, no, what you’ve been through – I won’t just take anything and go away.

“It’s a scandal what they did with the Horizon system, it’s a scandal now because of the length of time it’s taken [on redress].”

Terry, who died aged 74, was part of the GLO (Group Litigation Order) Scheme established after the 2019 High Court win.

Its aim is to restore sub-postmasters to the financial position they would have been in had they not become victims of faulty Horizon software which caused false accounting shortfalls.

Terry had his Post Office contract terminated in 2008. He and Janet lost their business and then their family home.

They moved in to rented accommodation where they lived for the past 15 years.

Janet said Terry’s claim was put forward in February 2024 and it has taken a year to receive an offer for redress from the government.

“It should have been a 40-day turnaround of an offer,” she says. “And it’s taken 12 months to receive an offer, an offer which came after Terry had passed away.

“They wanted a stroke report back in September to drag it out a bit more, to see if it’s being caused by all the stress from the Post Office.”

“I think it contributed considerably to the whole state of him,” she added.

Postmasters should be given ‘the benefit of the doubt’, says campaigner

Lord Beamish, a prominent campaigner for justice for Post Office victims, says the redress offer process should “err on the side of the postmaster rather than the Post Office”.

“I think it has been bureaucratic in the past, and I think it’s been trying to get information which is difficult to actually obtain,” he says.

“I think in those cases the benefit of the doubt should be put on the postmaster.”

Lord Beamish is also critical of the 40-working-day turnaround for offers.

“I think individual cases should be dealt with on an individual basis,” he says.

“That 40 days shouldn’t be sacrosanct. If you think it can be turned around within two days or a day, do it.”

He also says “getting people around a table and trying to get a resolution should be the main aim… If it’s questioning about more information – that shouldn’t be a reason for undue delay.”

More from Sky News:
Victims of new scandal face compensation struggle
Sub-postmasters still going through hell, says Alan Bates

More than 3,500 sub-postmasters still waiting for compensation

Lord Beamish also highlights concerns over the fact more than 60 victims are yet to submit any claims for redress because they are “very damaged by this process”.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said: “We are sorry to hear of Terry’s death and our thoughts are with Janet and the rest of his family and friends.”

They added they have now issued 407 offers to the 425 GLO claimants “who have submitted full claims” and are “making offers to 89% of GLO claimants within 40 working days of receipt of a full claim, with over half of eligible claimants having now settled their claim.”

The DBT also said it has “doubled” the amount of payments under the Labour government to “provide postmasters with full and fair redress”.

The latest government data shows that out of the 425 GLO claimants, 265 have had their claims paid, with 160 waiting.

According to the figures for the HSS (Horizon Shortfall Scheme), 2,090 out of 2,417 eligible claims made before their original deadline in 2020 have been paid – leaving over 300 still waiting.

Out of the 4,665 “late” claims, 1,260 have been paid, with more than 3,400 now waiting.

A former soldier has been found guilty of raping his ex-girlfriend during a four-hour attack in which he killed her, her mother and her sister.

Warning: This article contains distressing details.

Kyle Clifford, 26, previously admitted murdering BBC racing commentator John Hunt’s wife Carol Hunt, 61, and their daughters Louise, 25, and Hannah, 28.

He also pleaded guilty to false imprisonment of Louise, who was tied and gagged with duct tape, and possession of the crossbow used to kill her and her sister, and the 10-inch butcher’s knife he stabbed their mother to death with.

Prosecutors said he raped Louise in an “act of spite” during the attack in the Hunt family home in Bushey, Hertfordshire, on 9 July last year after she broke up with him 13 days earlier.

Clifford, who refused to attend the four-day trial at Cambridge Crown Court, claimed DNA evidence found on her body was from a consensual sexual encounter 16 days before the attack.

But he was found guilty by a jury after the court heard his explanation was “completely untenable”.

There was applause from the public gallery and cries of “yes!”, with one woman pumping her fists and another woman crying as the guilty verdict was heard.

The court was told Clifford began planning the murders after Louise, who told a friend he had a “nasty temper”, ended their 18-month relationship in a message on 26 June.

Judge pays tribute to family of the victims

Mr Justice Joel Bennathan said he will sentence Clifford on Tuesday for his “dreadful” and “almost unspeakable” crimes.

The judge paid tribute to the family of the deceased, adding: “They conducted themselves with huge dignity and restraint and I pay tribute to them.”

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Gardner said Clifford’s failure to attend his trial was an “absolute act of cowardice”.

He pointed out that the trial had been held in Cambridge to meet Clifford’s accessibility needs – he required a wheelchair after he shot himself with the crossbow.

“He has put the family through the ordeal of the trial, he has created everything that’s happened over this past week and failing to show his face is completely cowardly,” he added.

Clifford ‘planned a terrible attack’

Louise’s friends and family, who had described Clifford as “odd”, and “disrespectful, rude and arrogant”, backed her decision to end the relationship, sparked by his behaviour at a friend’s wedding.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said Clifford, who had hidden relationships with two other women from Louise, was “angered” that she rebuffed his attempts to get back together.

“The defendant planned a terrible attack on Louise Hunt and her family, enraged by her rejection of him,” she told jurors during the trial.

“That attack included an act of sexual violence, committed out of spite, when she was restrained and unable to escape him.”

Read more
CCTV released shows timeline of crossbow and knife killer
Kyle Clifford pleads guilty to murders of racing commentator’s wife and daughters
Violent misogyny of kind promoted by Andrew Tate ‘fuelled rape and triple murder’

She said the murders were “carefully planned and executed”, with Clifford tricking his way inside the family home on the pretext of returning Louise’s belongings and delivering a “thank you” card to her parents after checking Mr Hunt was not home.

He carried out “a brutal knife attack” on Carol, then waited for his ex-girlfriend to return home from working at her dog grooming business in a pod in the garden, the court heard.

It was added that customers of Louise’s business were using the gate at the side of the house, “not realising what was happening” when Carol was attacked and killed.

Louise was held for hours before Clifford shot her with the crossbow moments before her sister Hannah, a beautician, came home from work.

Hannah is heard on audio at the Hunt family home saying: “Kyle, I swear to God,” after finding him inside the house, the court heard.

The prosecution said Hannah messaged her partner, Alex Klein, telling him to “call police… immediately. To mine. Now. Kyle here. Police now. He’s tying us up”.

Clifford’s own sister messaged him on the day of the attacks when she realised he had taken the crossbow, asking: “What are you playing at?”

A loud whooshing sound was caught on a doorbell camera as the weapon was fired, while Hannah could be heard to shout, “Oh my god”, as she found her mother and sister.

She was also shot but managed to call police, and emergency services found her collapsed in the doorway, but she died soon after.

Clifford, who served in the army from 2019 to 2022, shot himself in the chest with a crossbow as armed police found him in a cemetery the next day after a manhunt and is now paralysed from the chest downwards.

Violent misogyny promoted by the likes of Andrew Tate fuelled Clifford’s attack, prosecutors argued in court.

He also had been searching YouTube for the controversial influencer’s podcast the day before he carried out the four-hour attack, it was said in legal argument ahead of his trial.

It can only now be reported because the judge excluded the evidence from the trial, saying that it was of “limited relevance” and too prejudicial.

The violent misogyny promoted by the likes of Andrew Tate fuelled a former soldier’s rape of his ex-girlfriend and the murder of her along with her mother and sister, the prosecution argued in court.

Warning: This article contains distressing details.

Kyle Clifford, 26, had been searching YouTube for the 38-year-old controversial influencer’s podcast the day before he carried out the four-hour attack, it was said in legal argument ahead of his trial.

It can only now be reported because Judge Mr Justice Bennathan excluded the evidence from the trial, saying that it was of “limited relevance” and too prejudicial.

But he added that anyone who takes a close interest in Tate, a “poster boy for misogynists”, could also be seen as a misogynist.

Clifford tricked his way inside the family home in Bushey, Hertfordshire, on 9 July last year on the pretext of returning a bag of 25-year-old Louise Hunt’s clothes 13 days after she dumped him.

He made sure her father, the BBC and Sky Sports racing commentator John Hunt, wasn’t home before stabbing her mother Carol Hunt, 61, to death with a 10-inch butchering knife.

Clifford laid in wait for more than an hour until Louise returned from work at the dog grooming business she ran from a pod in the garden, tied her arms and ankles with duct tape, gagged her and raped her.

He held her captive for hours before shooting her through the chest with a crossbow, using the same weapon to kill her sister Hannah Hunt, a 28-year-old beauty therapist, when she returned home minutes later.

Clifford pleaded guilty to three counts of murder, false imprisonment, and two counts of possession of offensive weapons but denied raping Louise – claiming the DNA found on her body was from 16 days earlier.

He has now been found guilty of the charge by a jury at Cambridge Crown Court.

Interest in Andrew Tate

Clifford had been searching YouTube for Tate’s podcast the day before the murders and is believed to have watched up to 10 of the influencer’s videos.

One of Louise Hunt’s friends had previously asked why he was watching one of Tate’s videos involving drugged animals and he said: “Because it’s funny,” it was said during legal argument before the trial.

Prosecutors argued the “violent misogyny promoted by Tate” was the same kind that “fuelled both the murders” and the rape” committed by Clifford.

Alison Morgan KC said his interest in the “widely known misogynist” helped to explain why he became so “incandescent with rage” after she ended the relationship.

In throwing out the evidence, the judge said that there was likely to be ongoing reporting about Tate after he and his brother Tristan, 36, flew to the US from Romania on Thursday after travel restrictions imposed on the pair were lifted.

A criminal investigation has since been launched into the British-American pair – who are already subject to an ongoing probe into alleged people trafficking in Romania – in Florida.

They are also due to be extradited to the UK after that case to face separate accusations of rape and trafficking dating back to between 2012 and 2015.

The brothers deny any wrongdoing.

‘Misogynistic and sexualised’ comments

Clifford had recently been sacked from his job at a catering supply firm in Waltham Cross.

It also emerged in legal argument that he was said to have made “misogynistic and sexualised comments” about female colleagues in the workplace.

He hid two relationships with women he knew through work from Louise during their 18-month relationship, which started after they met on a dating website.

It can now be reported Clifford went on dating apps Hinge and Tinder moments after Louise ended their 18-month relationship in a message on 26 June last year.

Clifford then started planning his attack, buying a length of rope just two days later, and on 30 June he researched crossbows before searching for a pornographic video of a Wandsworth prison officer having sex with an inmate.

Brother serving life sentence for murder

He also discussed crossbows with his brother Bradley Clifford, who he would visit in prison every other week, where he is serving a life sentence for murdering a teenager in 2017.

Bradley Clifford drunkenly mowed down 19-year-old Jahshua Francis, who was riding a moped, and his pillion passenger Sobhan Khan, 18, after his “prized” red Mustang was damaged.

Police said Kyle Clifford had plenty of opportunities to back out of the 9 July attack but was “absolutely cold-blooded and calculated in his actions”.

In legal argument not before the jury, Ms Morgan said “highly sexualised violence played a part in what took place” and that Clifford was trying to “misogynistically control Louise Hunt for one more time”.

‘Sense of entitlement’

She described him as a man whose identity was based on “whether he has the right number of women and the admiration of women” and “doesn’t like to be told, ‘No,’ by women”.

Ms Morgan said his “sense of entitlement” and the “spite and the sleight” of being dumped fuelled the sexualised violence.

After the murders, CCTV footage shows Clifford calmly leaving the Hunt family home in the quiet cul-de-sac of Ashlyn Close carrying a backpack and holding the crossbow hidden under a blanket.

He drove to a cemetery near his home in Enfield, north London, where he shot himself in the chest with the weapon as armed police descended the next day following a manhunt.

A makeshift noose was found in a nearby tree, but police and prosecutors don’t believe he made a genuine attempt to end his life, although he was left paralysed from the chest down.

The trial was held in Cambridge to accommodate him as a wheelchair user, but he refused to attend.

‘Underwhelming individual’

His victims’ friends and family, including John Hunt – who has one surviving daughter Amy – sat in the public gallery to hear the harrowing details of the case.

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Gardner described Clifford, who served in the army from 2019 for around three years, as an “entirely underwhelming individual” with a failed military career who couldn’t hold down a job.

He worked as a private security guard for a few months in 2023, then was sacked from his job at Reynolds shortly before the murders.

Louise had told a friend Clifford had a “nasty temper”, while friends and family members described him as “odd” or “disrespectful, rude and arrogant”.

Clifford came to the attention of police in London in relation to alleged offences of possession of cannabis, assault without injury and theft when he was a juvenile between 2012 and 2013, but they didn’t result in charges or convictions.

Police say there were no obvious red flags that he would go on to commit such a crime.