Post Office Horizon scandal victim's fight after husband's same conviction quashed

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https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/p ... s-36507921

A victim of the Post Office Horizon scandal has revealed her battle for justice after her husband’s exact same conviction was quashed.

Former sub-postmasters Glenys Eaton and husband David were jailed for six months after, like others, the now discredited Horizon software found discrepancies in branch accounts. But while Mr Eaton’s conviction was overturned in 2024, his wife’s lawyers were forced to threaten officials with a judicial review. It was only weeks ago that she was told her conviction was eligible to be quashed too.

“The time in prison was absolutely horrible,” Mrs Eaton said while giving evidence to MPs. “We are not dishonest people.” Whereas her husband has been offered an initial £200,000 compensation, Mrs Eaton still faces a wait. She said: “I feel sorry for all the other people who are in the same boat we were and don’t have people to fight their corner.”

The couple took over their Post Office branch in 2000, a year before the Horizon system was introduced, and almost immediately noticed very large shortfalls. They worked together and were both arrested in December 2001 for the same offence and subsequently prosecuted.

Mr Eaton said: "The evidence was there from the very beginning," adding that it was important that the couple were able to support each other while they fought to have her case quashed too. "There must be people out there now who do not know they can address this issue," he said. "They are just fobbed off."

It came as MPs on the Business and Trade Committee heard there may be many more “missing” victims of the Horizon scandal, who have either not come forward or are stuck in limbo. The hearing was told that, out of around 1,000 potential convictions that could be quashed, around a fifth have been held up because of lengthy requests for further information by the Ministry of Justice or the Department of Business and Trade, in one case dragging on for 14 months.

David Enright of Howe and Co Solicitors, which represented the Eatons, said it was a “Titanic battle” to get her conviction quashed, including six months of constant correspondence with the two departments. “We had a husband and wife in identical situations,” Mr Enright told MPs. “You’ve quashed the conviction of the husband but not the wife. We had to take the step of issuing judicial review proceedings.” He added: “I am certain there are many Mr and Mrs Eatons out there but she cannot be a freak example.”

Neil Hudgell, director of Hudgell Solicitors, which is also asking on behalf of victims, told the same hearing: “We have clients who are highly traumatised from the events of 20 years ago”, but who have little to no paperwork to support their case.

The government has already set aside £1.8billion for the Horizon scandal, much of it in the form of taxpayer funded compensation payouts. Yet Paul Patterson, a director at Fujitsu Services, the Japanese IT giant responsible for the Horizon system, admitted the company had yet to set aside a penny in potential compensation.

“It has yet to be decided,” Mr Patterson told MPs, while insisting the company would contribute after the completion of Sir Wyn Williams’ report on the scandal. “I am not going to deny there were bugs and errors, there continue to be,” he said, with the Post Office still using the system.

MPs heard Fujitsu has continued to pocket £500million on government contract extensions since May 2024. The Horizon scandal is widely considered one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.

Mr Patterson told the same committee two years ago that Fujitsu had a moral obligation to contribute to the compensation bill. He still insisted the figure had “yet to be decided”, adding: “We have not made a provision in our report and accounts. It would in appropriate for us to do that yet. We have got a commitment and we will contribute.”

Labour MP Liam Byrne, chair of the committee, said he “just can’t believe the company has changed”. He went on: “Your refusal to tell us how much Fujitsu will pay into a £1.8billion bill for taxpayers leads people to the conclusion that, frankly, Fujitsu is behaving like a parasite on the British state.”

Mr Patterson, European chief executive of Fujitsu, said: “We are not a parasite, the government has got an option as to whether they wish to extend those contracts or not,” he said, adding it would not bid for new business.