Sussex man suffers PTSD over Post Office scandal

Sami Sabet was wrongly convicted in 2009

A former Sussex sub-postmaster wrongfully convicted during the Horizon Post Office scandal has described his treatment as "worse than murder".

Sami Sabet ran three post offices - two in Shoreham and one in Portslade - and was convicted of false accounting in 2009.

He was one of more than 700 people convicted in what became known as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British Legal History, when it became clear the Post Office's accounting software was to blame.

A four-part TV drama based on the scandal has been widely praised by critics.

Mr Sabet, who has written a book called Judge Me If You Can, told BBC Radio Sussex: "I've cleared my name, but I want them to hurt, to pay as much as possible."

"To me it was like premeditated murder, only it was even more cruel because if you're dead that's it, it's finished.

"We had to live in torture throughout these years," he added.

Mr Sabet (far left) is one of 93 sub-postmasters who has had his conviction overturned

Mr Sabet, whose conviction was overturned in 2021, said he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by a psychiatrist, and is still affected by his ordeal.

He compared his experience to "a bomb that was festering inside me but I couldn't let it appear - I couldn't let it out".

"Every single day, every single minute, every single second, it's in my mind, playing over and over again," he said.

"My sister told me I'm no longer the person that I used to be.

"I still feel it now and it's still just as upsetting and it still keeps me awake at night and I don't know what to do about it," Mr Sabet added.

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