Post office scandal victim's 'duty' to forgive

A former sub-postmaster caught up in the Post Office scandal has told the BBC it is his "Christian duty" to forgive those responsible.

Tom Hedges ran a Lincolnshire branch between 1994 and 2010 before he was prosecuted for theft and fraud.

The 70-year-old received a seven-month suspended sentence in 2011 but his conviction was overturned a decade later by the Court of Appeal.

More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted due to a faulty software system called Horizon, which showed errors that did not exist.

Mr Hedges, who is a church warden and lay minister, said his "deep faith" had helped him to come to terms with what happened and to move forward with his life.

"It's my Christian duty to forgive because Jesus says 'love your enemy'. I greatly believed that if you can't forgive, you cannot heal yourself.

"I also would like the people that have done those things to atone themselves. And they need to do that, else they're not going to be able to move on in their lives.

"You've got to be able to take that step, else you cannot move on yourself. I'm pretty happy with my life now," he added.

In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Hedges described becoming a sub-postmaster in Hogsthorpe in 1994 as a "dream move" after "years of climbing the greasy pole of the corporate world".

But six years later, he said he used to "dread" submitting his figures to the Post Office because of the losses he was incurring.

In total, he ran up almost £60,000 of debt to pay the reported shortfall and said, at one point, his family was a month away from going bankrupt.

Mr Hedges talked about being shunned by people living in his village after his conviction and how some would "cross the road" to avoid him.

But he said the situation had improved after successful legal action, public inquiries and a high-profile TV dramatisation.

"I've had a few people that sort of shunned us back in the day who are now absolutely, perfectly alright. They're talking to me again.

"Sorry is a very difficult thing to say for a lot of people. They can't admit they got it wrong."

The government recently introduced legislation which is expected to clear the majority of victims in England and Wales by the end of July.

Those wrongly convicted will get an option to settle for £600,000, without the need to bring a formal claim and others who have already settled will have their compensation topped up.

Mr Hedges said he already has plans on how to spend his payout: "It will be nice to get the final payment out of them and to be able to finally buy our retirement bungalow that we always promised ourselves by the sea."

The full interview with Tom Hedges, Second class citizen: My Post Office scandal, is available on BBC Sounds.

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