Calls for full inquiry after sub-postmasters' convictions finally waived

However three of the convicted workers - Wendy Cousins, Stanley Fell and Neelam Hussain – had their appeals dismissed by the court because “the reliability of Horizon data was not essential to the prosecution case”.

During the hearing today Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Picken and Mrs Justice Farbey, said the Post Office “knew there were serious issues about the reliability of Horizon” and had a “clear duty to investigate” the system’s defects.

But the Post Office “consistently asserted that Horizon was robust and reliable”, and “effectively steamrolled over any subpostmaster who sought to challenge its accuracy”, the judge added.

The Court of Appeal also allowed 39 of the appeals on the grounds that the prosecutions were an affront to the public conscience.

Many of those who were cleared today celebrated outside the court. Karen Wilson, widow of postmaster Julian Wilson who died in 2016, held a photograph of her husband outside the Royal Courts of Justice after his conviction was overturned. She was joined by her daughter Emma Jones as they heard the news. 

Karen Wilson, widow of postmaster Julian Wilson who died in 2016, holds a photograph of her husband outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London, after his conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal.

Mrs Wilson, 66, said: “He had cancer. He died in 2016. He was only 67. His health deteriorated after he was suspended in 2008. I think the stress contributed. He may have still got cancer but I think it contributed.”

She added: “I promised him I would kept on fighting. And today those judges said he was right. I’m not brave but this was such a massive wrong. For 13 years I have lived and breathed it. We almost lost everything.”

Lord Justice Holroyde told the court: “Post Office Limited’s failures of investigation and disclosure were so egregious as to make the prosecution of any of the ‘Horizon cases’ an affront to the conscience of the court.”

At a hearing last month, the court heard subpostmasters’ lives were “irreparably ruined” as they lost their jobs, homes and marriages after they were prosecuted by the Post Office which knew the Fujitsu-developed IT system had “faults and bugs from the earliest days of its operation”.

Lawyers representing the former subpostmasters said evidence of serious defects in the Horizon system was “concealed from the courts, prosecutors and defence”, in order to protect the Post Office “at all costs”.

Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London after the ruling, Harjinder Butoy, who was convicted of theft and jailed for three years and four months in 2008, described the Post Office as “a disgrace”.

Former post office worker Harjinder Butoy (left) hugs his father outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London

He said those responsible for the scandal “need to be punished, seriously punished”, adding: “They’re just bullies, that’s all they are … somebody needs to really, really sort this out and charge them for this.”

Janet Skinner, who pleaded guilty to false accounting and was sentenced to nine months in prison in 2007, said she was “relieved” to have finally cleared her name.

Former post office worker Janet Skinner (centre), with her niece Hayley Adams (right) and her daughter Toni Sisson,

Asked what her message was to those responsible for the prosecutions of dozens of subpostmasters, Ms Skinner said: “Watch your backs.”

Neil Hudgell, from Hudgell Solicitors, who represented 29 of the former subpostmasters, said his clients were “honest, hard-working people who served their communities but have had to live with the stigma of being branded criminals for many years, all the while knowing they have been innocent”.

He said in a statement: “The Post Office still appears to care little about the people whose lives it has destroyed." 

Mr Hudgell said the “scandal” of the prosecution of subpostmasters “will only deepen should those involved not now finally face a fiercely-run investigation into how these prosecutions were conducted, what exactly was known as to the unreliability of the Horizon system when it was being used to ruin people’s lives, and whether people acted in a criminal manner”.

He called on Boris Johnson to announce a “judge-led public inquiry”, with the power to summons witnesses, into the prosecutions of subpostmasters.

Labour's shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray welcomed the ruling today, adding his backing to the public inquiry calls.

The Edinburgh South MP said: "This is a long overdue victory in the fight for justice.

"It is a tragedy that so much pain and suffering has been faced by families.

"We need a full judge-led public inquiry to get to the bottom of this scandal. There are still so many questions. Those affected deserve answers and lessons must be learned."

SNP MP and Chair of the Post Office All Party Parliamentary Group, Marion Fellows, also welcomed the ruling.

She said: “The quashing of these convictions has been a hard and long fought battle by these employees to clear their names. But justice for the Subpostmasters has not been secured yet. The UK Government must launch a judge-led inquiry to hold all those responsible to account.

“Horizon has been one of the biggest, broadest miscarriages of justice carried out in the UK - potentially knowingly. Some have sadly taken their own lives and others have been imprisoned. Entire lives have been ruined. They have been utterly failed.

“The parameters of the current inquiry will not bring about justice. Subpostmasters are essential and valued public servants and pillars of our communities. A judge-led inquiry is the very least they deserve. Otherwise, they will be let down yet again.”

Asked about the ruling during a visit to a farm in Derbyshire today, the Prime Minister said: "I know the distress many subpostmasters and their families have felt for a very long time now through the Horizon scandal and I’m pleased that we’ve got the right judgment.

“Our thoughts are very much with the victims and we’ll have to make sure that people get properly looked after because it’s clear that an appalling injustice has been done.

“Everybody in my profession knows somebody in the Post Office world who has suffered from this and it’s very sad what has happened.

“I think the Horizon thing has been really terrible for many families and I’m really glad the judgment has come, in I think, the right way.

“I hope that that will now be some relief for those families and for those people who, I think, have been unfairly penalised and suffered in an appalling miscarriage and we’ve got to make sure we look after them.”