Horizon scandal: Postmaster's life ‘ruined’ by injustice

A Scottish postmaster who was wrongly convicted in the Post Office Horizon scandal said the injustice “ruined” his life.

Rab Thomson, who has had his conviction overturned, has launched the Scottish Postmasters for Justice and Redress Group to encourage other victims to come forward and seek redress.

The 65-year-old, from Alva, Clackmannanshire, said being exonerated was a “weight off my shoulder”.

However, he said the 20-year wait for justice “broke up” his family.

“It’s not the money, my life’s been ruined,” he said.

“No one can really know it unless they’ve been through this. When I came in here today it broke my heart, because it was bringing everything back.”

Thomson said on Wednesday that Scotland is lagging behind in access to the Horizon redress scheme, often because elderly victims of the scandal may not want to revisit trauma from years ago.

His new support group encourages postmasters who have been wronged to come forward and seek redress.

Last June, a law which exonerated Scots wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal came into force.

Justice secretary Angela Constance says this legislation has so far led to 64 convictions being identified as quashed.

The law also allows Scottish postmasters to access a UK compensation scheme.

The UK-wide scandal involved subpostmasters being wrongly convicted of offences such as fraud because of the faulty Horizon software.

Mr Thomson said: “I am the first postmaster in Scotland to get my conviction overturned by the courts.

“I felt I needed to do something to get other postmasters to come forward.

“Scotland are the sleeping dogs in this case and many victims are unaware of how they can be exonerated or what redress options are available to them. This is why we have set up this group.”

He continued: “We want as many of our ex-colleagues to come forward and attend the launch so they will receive redress, which they are all entitled to, having suffered through the biggest miscarriage of justice in our time.”

Constance previously welcomed the group, saying: “I am pleased the legislation the Scottish Government brought forward last year has now resulted in 64 people having their convictions identified as quashed and therefore access to redress from the UK Government as a result.”

She said the Scottish Government continues to encourage anyone who considers they suffered an injustice to come forward.

On Wednesday, former postmaster Calum Greenhow and ex-MP Marion Fellows both helped launch the new support group alongside of Thomson.

Fellows, the former Motherwell and Wishaw MP who chaired a parliamentary group on the issue, said it is important that postmasters receive redress after being treated “abominably”.

“They had their whole lives turned upside down. Families broken,” she said.

“Children of postmasters, as well, were getting bullied in school. People committed suicide. It’s been a horrendous time.”

At the launch, Thomson called on MSPs and the Scottish Government to publicise the scheme as much as possible, saying he would help anyone apply for redress.

Mr Greenhow urged the Scottish Government to take a wider view of what kind of issues should be included in the reviews of convictions.

In 22 Scottish cases, convictions have not been quashed under last year’s Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Act.

Mr Greenhow said: “The problem that we’ve got is under legislation that’s in place – to have your conviction quashed Horizon has to be the evidence. But if you happened to be involved in running a Post Office you could still be convicted.

He added: “But if Horizon wasn’t the basis of the evidence you’d be outside the scope.”