Post Office Horizon victim 'owes life' to campaigner

Susan Knight was among 700 people wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting

A woman who was wrongly accused of stealing from the Post Office has called a man who campaigned for justice over the scandal her "hero".

ITV's Mr Bates vs The Post Office tells the story of Alan Bates who challenged the faulty accounting system Horizon that led to hundreds of subpostmasters being wrongly accused of fraud and theft.

Susan Knight, 68, from Cornwall, who ran the St Keverne Post Office said: "Honestly hand on heart, I owe that man my life."

The drama comes after a public inquiry was launched into the Post Office scandal.

Mr Bates vs the Post Office: The Real Story is also available on the network's streaming service ITVX

More than 700 Post Office managers were convicted after faulty accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their sites.

• Post Office scandal explained: What the Horizon saga is all about

Many of them were jailed, lost their livelihoods and reputations, and some even took their own lives.

The inquiry aims to establish the extent of the Post Office's failures and accountability, and to provide recommendations for the future.

The affair has been described by the Criminal Cases Review Commission as "the most widespread miscarriage of justice ever seen and represents the biggest single series of wrongful convictions in British legal history".

Ms Knight, who was cleared of false accounting in 2013, said that she had felt isolated and hopeless.

"Alan Bates, bless him, believed in truth and he wasn't going to let it go.

"Our hero Alan was making a lot of waves parallel to when I was going through the courts," she said.

"Honestly hand on heart, I owe that man my life because I don't think if not for them making waves, I would have a criminal conviction."

'Brilliant community'

She said she had lost hope but the local people and her customers had supported her.

"They put cheques and cards through the door, which I still have," she said.

"When you're going through something like this, you actually lose complete belief in yourself but the community were just brilliant.

"I'm so grateful to them because they really don't know how they pulled me through."

Ms Knight said she still had many "low points" but the drama, which shows the solidarity and support of the subpostmasters, made her feel "recognised and vindicated".

A Post Office spokesperson said the company was "deeply sorry" and was doing all it could to right the wrongs of the past as far as is possible.

Several financial compensation schemes have been set up to help those caught up in the scandal, although concerns have been raised about delays in payment.