Post Office scandal: Jailed Devon woman 'had to leave children'

Janine Powell was wrongfully accused of stealing £74,000 from her branch in Tiverton

A former Post Office branch manger has described how she was sent to prison two days after her daughter's 10th birthday.

Janine Powell, now 52, was wrongfully accused of stealing £74,000 from her branch in Tiverton, Devon.

She was sacked and arrested, before being convicted at a trial in Exeter in 2008.

She maintained her innocence but was sentenced to 18 months in prison, serving five months.

Ms Powell said the hardest part of her wrongful jailing had been leaving her children.

"You're stuck behind these four walls in a little room," she said.

"You get phone calls to find out what's happening outside with the children.

"I've missed out on doing things with them - I can't get that back."

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'You feel guilty'

The Post Office Horizon scandal led to more than 700 people being prosecuted after faulty software made it look like money was missing.

What happened between 1999 and 2015 is now in the spotlight following the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office.

After Ms Powell was released from prison, she spent a further three months wearing a tag.

She moved away from Tiverton, but said she could not escape feelings of guilt on her visits back to Devon.

• Listen: Janine Powell on being jailed as part of the Post Office scandal

"Even though people were being nice to you, saying 'I know you didn't do it', you know that as soon as you walk away, they're talking about it, saying that you've done it," she said. "You feel guilty."

Some sub-postmasters, like Ms Powell, wrongfully went to prison, many were financially ruined and forced to declare bankruptcy - and some have since died.

The Metropolitan Police is investigating possible fraud offences arising from the prosecutions.

The Post Office Horizon scandal led to more than 700 people being wrongly prosecuted

A public inquiry into the Horizon scandal - to which Ms Powell has given evidence - is continuing.

Quashing convictions

The government is now facing increasing calls to bring forward emergency legislation to deal with the scandal and ministers said they would introduce plans to speed up the process "shortly".

The former Justice Secretary, Sir Robert Buckland, said: "Perhaps there should be a presumption that all those people who were convicted are in fact not guilty.

"We could go further and simply quash the convictions and render them absolutely void, so that then we're in a position whereby the sort of complications that are hitting the compensation process can be avoided."

Ms Powell's conviction was quashed, along with many others in 2022.

She says, for her, details of compensation are not the issue.

What she most wants is for the Post Office to "hold their hands up" and "admit they were wrong".