‘Oldest' victim of Horizon IT scandal says ordeal ‘destroyed' her health
She claims his death was impacted by the ordeal of missing hundreds of pounds each week in their accounts.
Ms Brown told the PA news agency: 'We had a nice office, nice atmosphere, nice customers, and everything was fine, no problem.
'And then we were told about this wonderful advancement in technology, and we would get a system put in, called Horizon that would half the workload – which it didn't.
'So Horizon was put in, then the very first night, the balance was £500 short, but they thought something had been missed in the accounts or whatever and that was just let go.
'Then it began eventually that there was so many mistakes in the system that it was concerning, and these losses were coming out in amounts of £1,500, £1,600 every week, and we were having to put this money in and make it good, because that's what you sign up for.'
Ms Brown said the ordeal caused her to lose her voice and said the anxiety it caused her husband disrupted his cancer treatment.
He died a year after they sold the Post Office, which Ms Brown said she felt forced to do.
'Even my voice today isn't a voice that I had naturally,' she said.
'The stress, I lost my voice, and after retired, I had to go for elocution lessons, to learn to speak again so that people could understand me.
'The stress was unbelievable. You would go to bed at night and you couldn't sleep.'
Ms Brown and her husband moved away from Annfield Plain to Consett after the ordeal.
'We couldn't live there (Annfield Plain) any longer, because the stigma was there and we kept a low profile.
'We didn't integrate into what the community. We kept ourselves apart. And when people would say to us, what did you do while you were working?
'You evaded the question, and you tried to change the subject.'
Ms Brown continues her campaign for full compensation but said on Tuesday, after the first tranche of the Horizon inquiry's final report was published, that she had an 'amazing' day.
'Sir (Wyn) Williams has done a wonderful job,' Ms Brown said.
'He has felt the pain, he's felt the anxiety, he's felt the agony, he's felt everything that subpostmasters felt and he has been able to bring that with all his skill into a meaningful book.
'I hope that the Post Office will take this on board.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Civil servants accused of fresh Post Office cover-up
Senior civil servants have been accused of covering up a report that could have exonerated sub-postmasters wrongly accused of theft. According to newly released emails, government officials removed any reference to a secret report that contained 'explosive' evidence about vulnerabilities in the Horizon computer system and bullying by Post Office prosecutors in correspondence with the National Audit Office (NAO). The report, which was compiled by Sir Jonathan Swift KC in 2016, was previously found to have been buried by the Post Office as it prepared to fight a legal case against more than 500 former sub-postmasters. However, The Telegraph can now reveal that civil servants at the UK Government Investments (UKGI) department, which manages the state shareholding in the Post Office, also kept the Swift review secret from the NAO. The revelation comes after the official inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal said it was likely 13 people took their own lives as a result of the miscarriage of justice. Sir Wyn Williams, the chairman of the public inquiry, said Post Office bosses knew Fujitsu's Horizon software was faulty but had 'maintained the fiction' that a version of it 'was always, always accurate'. In emails seen by The Telegraph from November 2018, UKGI officials recommended deleting reference to the Swift review in correspondence with the National Audit Office (NAO), the Government's financial watchdog. The Swift review was critical of the Post Office's tactic of pressuring sub-postmasters into pleading guilty to false accounting. The NAO asked UKGI for information while it was investigating the Post Office's decision to use public money to defend a lawsuit led by the former postmasters in 2018. This prompted immediate concern among UKGI officials, who raised fears internally about how documents could be used. Following a meeting to discuss the issue, a UKGI official sent an email to Richard Callard, head of risk and compliance, and Richard Watson, UKGI's general counsel, that said: 'I would not include specific reference to Jonathan Swift in the timeline for the NAO as I am not sure this was made public. 'Just say the Chair (Tim Parker) undertook a review, and that when you talk to the NAO, you can say you understand he took some independent legal advice as part of it or something.' Two minutes later, Mr Watson replied: 'I would just remove the reference entirely. As I understand it, the Swift review was never concluded.' Soon after, the UKGI civil servant responded: 'Thanks Richard. I will remove the Swift review then.' The Government has since claimed that UKGI did not have access to the Swift report until 2020. However, officials' awareness of its existence and decision to delete reference to it will raise questions about their decision-making, particularly as lawyers and former ministers claim that suppression of the Swift Report contributed to the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history. 'This new disclosure is very important,' said Paul Marshall, a barrister who acted for three sub-postmasters in their appeals against their criminal convictions. 'It tends to confirm a view I have held for a long time that it is possible the Government and civil servants were complicit in a cover-up.' It will also support claims by Baroness Neville-Rolfe, a former Post Office minister, who previously told a government inquiry that the 'explosive' Swift review had been 'buried and suppressed'. 'Airbrushed from the narrative' The internal UKGI emails were obtained by Eleanor Shaikh, a teaching assistant who has campaigned for justice for the sub-postmasters, under the Freedom of Information Act. She told The Telegraph: 'Instead of an impartial and transparent response to the NAO, the UKGI officials buried a document which threatened the very foundation of the Post Office's defence. Their carefully crafted communications allowed for plausible deniability. 'They knew the Swift review existed but actively colluded to airbrush it from the narrative. They were acting in the interests not of justice but of the Government.'
Daily Mirror
3 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
LBC host staggered by minister's reply as Post Office scandal IT firm 'rewarded'
Defence Secretary John Healey was confronted over the decision to award more than £500million in government contracts to Fujitsu since the ITV drama on the Post Office scandal Defence Secretary John Healey has said the Ministry of Defence will "continue to consider using" the IT firm responsible for the Post Office scandal. The Cabinet minister was confronted over the decision to award more than £500million in government contracts to Fujitsu since the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office aired last year It comes after the Horizon IT public inquiry this week said at least 13 people are believed to have taken their own lives after Fujitsu's faulty Horizon system made it look like they were stealing cash. The harrowing report said 59 others had contemplated suicide - including 10 who attempted to do so. Around 1,000 people were prosecuted and convicted using data from the faulty Horizon system, the inquiry estimates. In a tense interview, LBC host Nick Ferrari asked Mr Healey to "imagine your mother or father took their life" due to the flawed Japanese tech firm's software as he asked why Fujitsu was still getting new contracts. Pressed if there was no other tech firm they could use, Mr Healey said: "We are making sure that what they supply at taxpayer's expense to reinforce our forces or our defence systems that is good value for money and where it is, we'll continue to consider using them." A stunned Ferrari said: "But this is a company that we now learn is possibly responsible for 13 people taking their lives, 59 others considering it, and they're rewarded with the award of five more contracts since 2024. There's no other supplier out there, Secretary of State?" Mr Healey attempted to defend that Fujitsu is "the supplier that is best able to meet the terms of the contract". But Ferrari hit back: "I hear you sir, but imagine your mother or father took their life as a result of the Fujitsu horizon programme, and you now hear that this government has given 500 million pounds in contracts since 2024. How does that sit?" Mr Healey replied: "I think if, and I've dealt as a local MP with some of the postmasters and mistresses and their families that have been hit by this scandal. The one thing that they want is justice. The second thing they want is proper compensation. And as a government, we're determined to get that up in place and speed that up, because the payments have not been fast enough." Some 23 contracts, at a combined total of £510,704,582, have been awarded to Fujitsu since ITV's moving documentary on the Post Office scandal, according to procurement information analysed by Tussell, a firm gathering information on government contracts and spending. More than half of the £500m of government contracts awarded to Fujitsu related to two HMRC contracts for IT services, while £7m was for contracts at the MoD and £28m was for Home Office contracts, A Fujitsu spokesman told LBC: 'We continue to work with the UK Government to ensure we adhere to the voluntary restrictions we put in place regarding bidding for new contracts while the Post Office Inquiry is ongoing.'
STV News
5 hours ago
- STV News
Former Rangers player accused of killing woman in pick-up truck crash
A former Rangers footballer has appeared in court accused of killing a woman in a road incident. Kyle Hutton, 34, allegedly struck Victoria Cairns, 40, on Farmeloan Road in Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, on November 2 last year. Hutton – who played for the Ibrox club between 2010 and 2015 – is claimed to have been under the influence of alcohol at the time. Court papers state Hutton drove at excessive speed and failed to make proper observations of the road ahead. It is alleged that the midfielder failed to react to Ms Cairns on the road ahead. The charge says Hutton collided his Mitsubishi L200 with the woman who died at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital four days later. Hutton faces another allegation that he failed to co-operate at the scene with a preliminary breath test and failed to provide two specimens of breath at a police station. Hutton made no plea on Wednesday at a private hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court, where he was charged with causing Ms Cairns' death by dangerous driving. Hutton, of Rutherglen, was granted bail by Sheriff Allan Mckay. Hutton – who currently plays for junior outfit Gartcairn – also starred for clubs such as St Mirren, Queen of the South and Dumbarton. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
