A Post Office Capture victim says delays in the justice system have left him fearing he may never live to see his name cleared.
Steve Marston was convicted in 1998 of stealing nearly £80,000 from his branch, based on faulty computer software called Capture that pre-dated the infamous Horizon scandal.
His case has been with the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) for nearly a year, but has still not been referred to the Court of Appeal.
‘Sleeping isn’t easy’
Mr Marston, who turns 70 in February, told Sky News: “This waiting is just unbearable… the chances of us all (the victims) being there at the endgame are, well, I’d say quite slim to be honest.”
“The last thing I want to do is to not be here when it’s sorted out,” he said.
“I’m praying mine gets sorted while I’m still here to enjoy the benefit of it.
“You never know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
He describes waiting for the CCRC to make a decision on his case as “soul destroying”.
“Every day you’re thinking about it, talking about it,” he said.
“You’ve always got a permanent knot in the stomach. Sleeping isn’t exactly easy.”
The CCRC announced in July that the case of the late Pat Owen, a sub-postmistress convicted in 1998, would be referred to the Court of Appeal.
On Thursday, her case was formally sent to the court – three months after the decision was made to refer.
‘Special resolution needed’
It comes after a Sky News investigation discovered a long-lost damning report relating to the Owen case, which proved Post Office lawyers knew about Capture errors.
The victims’ lawyer, Neil Hudgell, says there is “no end in sight” for Post Office Capture victims convicted three decades ago, as timelines at the CCRC “keep getting shifted backwards”.
He wants to see a “special resolution” for Capture cases to “shorten the process”.
“I think these cases need to be dealt with in exceptional circumstances,” he said.
“You’ve a cohort of very elderly people who have had a conviction hanging over them for the best part of three decades now and those circumstances are such that I think that they need a special resolution to them.”
Mr Hudgell believes extending the government’s mass exoneration legislation – which currently applies only to Horizon victims – could offer a faster solution.
“You’re talking about a fraction of the number of people,” he said. “It would be an expeditious fix. But it needs political will.”
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Chair of the CCRC Dame Vera Baird, who has been tasked with carrying out a “thorough review” of the organisation, told Sky News that Capture cases are being given “what priority we can give them”.
She described the main issue with cases as the fact that for most there is a “real dearth of information” with paperwork evidence not available.
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Dame Vera added that staff members, however, will “dig and dig and dig to find what we can”.
A special group of case review managers has also been set up to deal with Capture cases with “experienced commissioners ready to go when cases come through.”
Dame Vera said the CCRC more broadly is “pretty short-staffed” and workers have cases of “about 30 or more”, but they are recruiting.
She also told Sky News the CCRC had put in a special request to “accelerate” the Owen case through the Court of Appeal.
“Once we’ve referred,” she said, “we do ask, where there is somebody who’s not very well perhaps or somebody who is older, we try to accelerate it and the Court of Appeals is good they will accelerate it on our request almost always.”
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A Post Office spokesperson said: “We continue to fully co-operate with the CCRC by supplying documents and information, where this is available, that has been requested in relation to pre-Horizon convictions.
“Whilst we can’t comment on individual cases, we continue to support the CCRC in dealing with pre-Horizon convictions.”
