Post Office scandal 'contributed to Redditch man's death'

Karen Wilson said her husband Julian's conviction "massively contributed" to his early death

The widow of a sub-postmaster who was wrongly convicted of false accounting said the experience had "massively contributed to his early death".

Karen Wilson's husband Julian had been sub-postmaster in Astwood Bank, near Redditch in Worcestershire.

He died of bowel cancer in 2016.

Giving evidence to an inquiry on Wednesday, Mrs Wilson said the pair's mental health deteriorated following his conviction in 2008, to the extent she cut off all her hair.

The inquiry, expected to run for the rest of this year, will look at whether the Post Office knew about faults in its Horizon IT system.

Shortfalls identified by the system led to more than 700 people receiving criminal convictions.

As well as being sentenced to 300 hours of community service, Mr Wilson was ordered to pay back thousands of pounds.

"We sat in the car afterwards and I just said to him, I can't believe this is happening, it didn't feel like British justice," she said.

Mr Wilson was cleared in 2021, more than four years after his death

Ms Wilson told the inquiry the couple had often worked until late into the night trying to work out why the IT system would not balance.

"He had all the evidence in six boxes, and he wasn't allowed to give any evidence."

"As my father said - who made them [The Post Office] judge, trial and executioner?"

She said she sold all of her jewellery, including her engagement ring, to pay the mortgage.

• Wrongly-convicted postmaster 'had to clean graves'

• Why were hundreds of sub-postmasters prosecuted?

• Former Post Office manager speaks of scandal 'hell'

She added their mental health also suffered.

Mr Wilson was out of work and not sleeping, and also talked about suicide, she told the inquiry.

"I locked myself in the bathroom and cut all my hair off," she added.

"I'm not an angry lady usually, I'm calm and collected."

"When you've got all this misplaced anger, you don't know what to do with it.

"This did not kill him but it massively contributed to his early death."

In 2019, a High Court judge ruled that Horizon contained a number of "bugs, errors and defects" and there was a "material risk" shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.

In 2021, after his death, Mr Wilson was among 72 former sub-postmasters to have their names cleared.