'Post Office victims are still having to fight'

Lee Castleton was declared bankrupt following a legal battle with the Post Office

The victims of the Post Office scandal are "still fighting for justice", a former sub-postmaster has said.

Lee Castleton was declared bankrupt after losing a two-year legal battle when the Post Office accused him of falsely stealing £25,000 from his branch in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, in 2004.

Mr Castleton has spoken out ahead of a BBC One documentary called Surviving the Post Office, which recounts the emotional toll on the victims of the scandal.

"To get to where we are now has been a very long journey for all in the group. [It's] been horrendous, tortuous, terrible," he said. "We've had to fight so hard."

He added: "Every day you have to pull your socks up and just get on with it.

"I've met the Prime Minister and all kinds of things that I would never have dreamed of doing and these people have started to listen.

"I just hope that we can just carry on to get to the end of this and make us all real survivors because we're still victims at the moment. We're still fighting."

Actor Will Mellor has become friends with Lee Castleton

The actor Will Mellor portrayed Mr Castleton in Mr Bates vs the Post Office – the ITV drama that shone a light on the scandal – and also presents the new BBC documentary.

Mellor has travelled around the country to meet victims including Mr Castleton, who was among hundreds wrongly accused of crimes due to a flaw in the Post Office's computer system, called Horizon.

Mr Castleton said he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the scandal, having been "spat at in the street and verbally abused" and "branded a thief".

The 55-year-old, who lives in Scarborough and works as an electrical engineer, is seeking "redress and accountability".

Postmasters accused of fraud or theft waged a long campaign to have their convictions overturned

He said moving forward had been very difficult. "My daughter particularly had terrible anxiety problems that led to an eating disorder.

"My wife had terrible anxiety that caused seizures and led to epilepsy.

"It's affecting my son terribly in all kinds of different ways, so much so that he won't even speak the words 'Post Office', even to this day."

A public inquiry into the IT scandal has been running since 2022 and is trying to ascertain how the Horizon fault led to more than 900 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses being either fired, made bankrupt or prosecuted by the Post Office between 2000 and 2014.

While Mr Castleton has received compensation, he is pursuing additional sums to fully cover his losses and said the inquiry was "kind of a little bit of a cathartic kickback".

"Let's hope that we get some justice," he added. "There's certainly enough information out there now to really get to the the crux of the matter and start, maybe, even prosecuting people."

Lee Castleton and his wife Lisa have found moving forward very difficult

Since the four-part ITV drama, Mr Castleton has become friends with Mellor.

"He's a great guy," said Mr Castleton. "There's so many things in there [the drama] that he does that I remember so well and how I reacted all those years ago.

"I'm so grateful. It's been such a huge change for [us]. It seems as though, all of a sudden, people are listening."

'Deeply sorry'

A Post Office spokesperson said: “We are deeply sorry for the pain which has been suffered by so many people, their families and friends throughout the Horizon IT scandal.

"We know an apology from Post Office is not enough on its own and that is why we strongly supported the government’s efforts to speed up the exoneration of people with wrongful convictions.

"Together with government, we are working as fast as we can to pay financial redress to those affected; recognising that some people have been waiting for many years for justice and want to move on with their lives.”

Surviving the Post Office

The new documentary, Surviving the Post Office, will be shown on BBC One at 20:30 BST and is already available on iPlayer.

A five-episode BBC Sounds podcast, also called Surviving the Post Office, is also available.

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