'My health will never be the same!' Post Office scandal victims rage Sunak plans are NOT ENOUGH as they make clear demand: 'People have to be in prison’

'My health will never be the same!' Post Office scandal victims rage Sunak plans are NOT ENOUGH as they make clear demand: 'People have to be in prison’

Post Office scandal victim Pauline Stonehouse speaks to GB News

GB NEWS
Gabrielle Wilde

By Gabrielle Wilde


Published: 10/01/2024

- 17:03

Post office scandal victim claims 'nothing will make up for the stress'

A subpostmaster who was accused of fraud has claimed that nothing will ever make up for the scandal that left her and her two children homeless.

Another victim has demanded that all the people involved receive the "same treatment" and get "imprisoned" for their role in the scandal.


Speaking to GB News, Pauline Stonehouse, who lost her home after she was wrongfully convicted of fraud, revealed that she believes that her health will "never be the same."

She said: "My health, I don't think will ever be the same. They say stress brings out, can bring out and causes many things.

Vijay Parekh

Former subpostmaster Vijay Parekh

GB NEWS

"I have been through breast cancer in the last five years. How do I know the stress of it all hasn't brought that on?

"I've lost my parents in the process of all of this and they never saw my innocence be proven.

"I don't think anything will ever make up for that.

"It'll always be in the back of my mind, no matter what. It doesn't matter that I've been found innocent and had my conviction overturned because the damage has been done already."

Pauline Stonehouse speaks on GB News

Pauline Stonehouse is concerned her health will 'never be the same'

GB NEWS

Vijay Parekh, who was also a victim of a wrongful conviction, wants to see the people involved "put in prison".

He said: "They need to quicken up the process of giving the compensation to everyone concerned because it's just taking too long for people to get compensation.

"And even after you put the application in, it doesn't finish until August, this Horizon inquiry.

He added: "I want to see all the people who are involved in this get the same treatment. We have had all this, convicted postmasters, so let them feel how we felt.

"We've done nothing and we've been imprisoned. They have done something. So they need to be imprisoned for what they've done."

More than 700 sub-postmasters were handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 after faulty software wrongly suggested the employees were stealing money.

This Prime Minister confirmed the Government will introduce new primary legislation to exonerate those convicted as a result of the Horizon IT software. The legislation will also see compensation handed to the victims of the scandal.

Sunak told MPs at PMQS: "Today I can announce that we will introduce new primary legislation to make sure that those convicted as a result of the Horizon scandal are swiftly exonerated and compensated.

“We will also introduce a new up-front payment of £75,000 for the vital GLO (group litigation order) group of postmasters.”

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