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Post Office victims hope inquiry 'will deliver justice'

PA Media Lee Castleton wearing a blue suit a blue shirt leaving the Post Office inquiry in central LondonPA Media
Lee Castleton was falsely accused of stealing money from his Bridlington post office

Victims of the Post Office scandal have said "it's time justice was served".

Former sub-postmaster Lee Castleton was declared bankrupt in 2004 after being falsely accused of stealing £25,000 from his branch in Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

Mr Castleton was speaking on the final day of the Post Office inquiry, which is investigating the wrongful prosecutions of hundreds of people due to a faulty computer system.

He told BBC Breakfast the inquiry had made the actions of the Post Office "visible" to the public.

"It's been kind of an all-out-there, open sort of session, that people can really engage with... [to] see how we had to deal with people that didn't want to deal with us in a fair and honest manner," he said.

Following his conviction, Mr Castleton said he was spat at in the street, verbally abused and branded a thief.

"We all set out on a journey, for me 20 years ago, to find truth and justice and it's time it was served, " he said.

Between 2000 and 2014, the Post Office prosecuted 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses based on "flawed" information from a computer system called Horizon.

PA Media Janet Skinner wearing glasses and a black coat leaving the Post Office inquiry in central LondonPA Media
Janet Skinner from Hull was jailed for nine months after wrongly being convicted of theft

Janet Skinner from Hull was jailed for nine months in 2007 over an alleged shortfall of £59,000 from her Post Office branch.

Her conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in April 2021.

The stress of the case meant she ended up in hospital for four months after she became paralysed and had to learn to walk again.

She told BBC Breakfast the inquiry had been "a revelation of information".

"I think it's... made a lot more information available... even probably what we didn't hear during the group litigation," she said.

She added: "I think the Post office needs a new beginning to be honest.

"I think it needs to break down and it needs to be restarted."

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