Post Office scandal may have led to more than 13 suicides, official inquiry finds
Post Office Horizon scandal may have caused at least 13 suicides: landmark inquiry
- The first part of the public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal concluded that Post Office bosses should have known the system was faulty but maintained it was accurate, leading to the worst miscarriage of justice in UK history.
- The inquiry chairman, Sir Wyn Williams, revealed that at least 59 individuals contemplated suicide, with a "real possibility" that 13 people took their own lives as a direct result of their experiences.
- Around 1,000 subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted and convicted between 1999 and 2015 due to the defective Fujitsu Horizon software.
- The report criticised the Post Office and the government for their "unnecessarily adversarial attitude" towards providing compensation, with approximately 10,000 people now eligible to submit claims.
- Sir Wyn Williams issued 19 recommendations, including calls for clear public announcements on "full and fair redress".