Readers express their anger over the inhumane treatment of wrongly prosecuted subpostmasters, whose traumatic experiences are now being fully revealed in a public inquiry
I am pleased that this story has finally been picked up by the wider media (The innocent have paid a high price for the Post Office scandal. The guilty have not, 15 February). But what is not being made abundantly clear is that this is actually not a miscarriage of justice, it is far worse: the Post Office was absolutely aware that the Horizon system was flawed but still continued to (a) prosecute subpostmasters on a grand scale for the best part of 14 years, and (b) tell them that they were the only one. The Post Office also took substantial sums of money from the subpostmasters. This is theft and fraud. This is far more dishonest over a much longer period than anything done by Nick Leeson, as one example of many frauds. This was not victimless crime.
The Post Office has used every legal device it can think up to avoid any responsibility, thus continuing to ruin the lives of the subpostmasters. It has said that it cannot afford to pay the compensation, so it falls to taxpayers. I am happy that at least some of the tax I pay will be for a good cause. No one has been – or, I suspect, will be – held responsible or accountable. This is a very sad indictment of Britain today. I cannot describe how angry I am about this.
David R Lewis
Sittingbourne, Kent
