Second victim 'forced' to sue Post Office as she seeks full redress for wrongful conviction

A unfortunate of the Post Office Horizon IT ungraded is taking ineligible enactment against the government-owned organisation arsenic she seeks afloat redress for her wrongful conviction.

Janet Skinner is believed to beryllium lone the 2nd unfortunate to writer the Post Office.

The erstwhile subpostmistress has been "forced" to instrumentality the state-owned concern to court, her solicitor told Sky News.

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Ms Skinner has been a campaigner for victims of the faulty Horizon bundle for astir 2 decades.

Around 1,000 radical were wrongly prosecuted and convicted passim the UK betwixt 1999 and 2015 arsenic a effect of Horizon.

Despite having her condemnation for mendacious accounting overturned successful 2021, Ms Skinner has yet to person a last payment, has been fixed an insufficient interim sum and is being asked for six antithetic adept reports, said lawyer Simon Goldberg.

Ms Skinner is taking ineligible enactment successful an effort to spot the contented resolved.

"There's nary motion of resolution. We're lone forced to bash it due to the fact that capable is enough," Mr Goldberg said.

"It's cruel and traumatic beyond content that she should inactive person to beryllium fighting."

Ms Skinner's assertion should person been settled wrong 12 months of the condemnation being overturned, helium said.

The interim offers are not successful keeping with the recommendations of retired High Court justice Sir Wyn Williams, Mr Goldberg added, who presided implicit the public enquiry into the scandal.

Both the Post Office and the Department for Business and Trade, which administers each but 1 of the victims' redress schemes, said successful October they would "always use a generous approach" to assessing redress.

But Ms Skinner was initially offered a outgo worthy lone 15% of her full claim.

"They've [claim assessors] intelligibly tried to grind her down and marque her springiness up, and we're not playing," her solicitor said.

More ineligible enactment to come?

While Ms Skinner is believed to beryllium lone the 2nd unfortunate to instrumentality a civilian lawsuit against the Post Office, she whitethorn not beryllium the last.

A postmaster made celebrated aft being portrayed successful the ITV play Mr Bates vs the Post Office, Lee Castleton became the archetypal to instrumentality specified enactment successful March.

"Unless there's a oversea change, determination volition decidedly beryllium much claims," Mr Goldberg said.

Ms Skinner was fixed a nine-month custodial condemnation successful 2007 aft the Horizon machine programme, made by Fujitsu, incorrectly generated a £59,000 shortfall.

She was imprisoned erstwhile her 2 children were successful their teens, released with an ankle show tag, and sold her location erstwhile it was owed to beryllium repossessed.

Amid the ordeal, Ms Skinner suffered a neurological illness and was near paralysed from the cervix down. She has had to regain the quality to walk.

A Post Office spokesperson said: "We recognise the devastating interaction of the Horizon IT Scandal connected erstwhile postmasters similar Ms Skinner and would similar to unequivocally apologise for her experiences.

"Responsibility for Ms Skinner's redress assertion moved to the Department for Business and Trade successful June 2025.

"We cannot remark connected ongoing ineligible proceedings but erstwhile we person the claim, we volition prosecute afloat successful the process."