At the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Friday, 39 of the 42 former subpostmasters involved in the action finally had their names cleared.
Post Office chief executive Nick Read said he had no doubt about the human cost the mistakes had caused.
He added: Many of those postmasters involved have been fighting for justice for a considerable length of time and sadly there are some who are not here to see the outcome today and whose families have taken forward appeals in their memory. I am very moved by their courage. The quashing of historical convictions is a vital milestone in fully and properly addressing the past as I work to put right these wrongs as swiftly as possible, and there must be compensation that reflects what has happened.
By Press Association 2021
Coronavirus â Mon Apr 12, 2021
Dozens of former subpostmasters who were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting due to the Post Office’s defective Horizon accounting system finally had their names cleared by the Court of Appeal on Friday.
Here the PA news agency looks at the decades-long scandal and what happens next.
– Who are the subpostmasters?
Subpostmasters run Post Office branches, which are often situated inside a shop or other business, which the subpostmasters also run.
Hundreds of subpostmasters were prosecuted by the Post Office. A total of 42 cases were considered by the Court of Appeal, with 39 of them having their convictions overturned.
The harrowing stories of the North Wales three falsely convicted in Post Office Horizon scandal
Noel Thomas, Margery Lorraine Williams and Damian Owen from Anglesey all had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal today after defects were found in the Post Office s Horizon accounting system
Updated
Former post office worker Noel Thomas, who was convicted of false accounting in 2006, celebrates with his daughter Sian outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London (Image: PA)
Sign up to our free newsletter for the top North Wales stories sent straight to your e-mail Invalid EmailSomething went wrong, please try again later.
Sam Tobin
23 April 2021, 5:58 am
Dozens of former subpostmasters who were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting because of the Post Office’s defective Horizon accounting system have finally had their names cleared by the Court of Appeal.
Subpostmasters’ lives were “irreparably ruined” as they lost their jobs, homes and marriages after they were prosecuted by the Post Office – which knew the Fujitsu-developed IT system had “faults and bugs from the earliest days of its operation”, the Court of Appeal heard last month.
Lawyers representing 42 former subpostmasters said evidence of serious defects in the Horizon system was “concealed from the courts, prosecutors and defence”, in order to protect the Post Office “at all costs”.
Friday April 23, 2021, 2:22 PM
Former subpostmasters Janet Skinner (left) and Tracy Felstead outside the Royal Courts of Justice in March ahead of their appeal. Credit: PA
Watch ITV News Correspondent Nick Wallis live report
Thirty-nine former sub-postmasters who were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting due to the Post Office s defective Horizon accounting system have had their names cleared by the Court of Appeal.
The Post Office prosecutions irreparably ruined the lives of scores of sub-postmasters causing them to lose their jobs, homes and marriages, the Court of Appeal heard last month.
Announcing the court’s ruling, Lord Justice Holroyde said the Post Office knew there were serious issues about the reliability of Horizon and had a clear duty to investigate the system’s defects.