'Post Office scandal saw me jailed with child killers and lose home'

04 January 2024 , 10:56

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Janet Skinner (left) and Tracy Felstead outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London. (Image: PA)

An innocent mum has revealed how she was wrongly accused of stealing nearly £60,000 from the Post Office she ran, and chucked in a drug-infested prison. Janet Skinner was unable to see her two children and was left destitute, going on to lose her home and reputation.

She was among hundreds of Post Office workers mistakenly called thieves and fraudsters because of the supposed account shortfalls made by the faulty computer system Horizon. Janet was just one of 230 former postmasters and postmistresses put in jail in one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in Britain's most recent history.

The story is captivating audiences as it plays out in a four-part ITV drama, which has left viewers outraged. In Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Toby Jones plays former postmaster and campaigner Alan Bates, who led a successful group action to prove staff were not at fault.

The Detectorists star is supported by a cast including ex- Coronation Street actresses Julie Hesmondhalgh and Katherine Kelly. Janet, from Hull, hopes the drama will unpack the human impact of the scandal and show how badly victims were treated by bosses.

Janet was just one of 230 former postmasters and postmistresses put in jail in one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in Britain's most recent history (ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

She served three months of a nine-month sentence which was imposed in 2007 over an alleged £59,000 shortfall at her post office in Hull. Then she was released on an electronic tag, and her conviction was quashed in April 2021. The mum told The Sun: “The Post Office ruined my life. My health has gone, I’m disabled and I have to live with the support of benefits. There isn’t a single day I don’t think about what this did to me. You just can’t move on from something like this.”

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She is demanding that the former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennellls be stripped of her 2019 CBE. She said: “It should be removed straight away and it shouldn’t stop there. She and all the others at the top benefited and thrived while we suffered, and at such a cost to our lives and families. Why is it right that someone like Paula Vennells prospers when so many lives were ruined? I hope that with this TV series now reaching so many people, whoever is responsible takes action. This has never just been about compensation, it has always been about justice.”

Members of the cast of Mr Bates vs The Post Office

Similarly, Kevin Hollinrake, the Postal Services minister, told ITV yesterday: “If I was Paula Vennells, I would seriously consider handing that [CBE] back voluntarily at this point.

When the Horizon system was introduced, Janet was working as a postmistress in Bransholme, and it was meant to assist staff with balancing the books. But the broken supercomputer began to identify supposed anomalies in the cash, passing over the counters in hundreds of community Post Offices.

Janet used her own hand-written ledger system and was wary that Horizon was making mistakes, but bosses said she was stealing. She took her keys and was suspended from her branch in 2006, before being taken to Hull crown court and accused of false accounting and theft.

When the Horizon system was introduced, Janet was working as a postmistress in Bransholme (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

She said her lawyer, Karl Turner, who is now a Labour MP in Hull, advised her to plead guilty in a bid to dodge jail. Janet said: “The advice was to admit to it so I could get charges reduced and avoid a jail sentence. It was against everything I knew was true, but I followed the advice. That was a terrible mistake.” She went on to be sent to jail, aged 35.

Janet believes an unfavourable probation report, which included her not apologising or admitting any fault, swayed the judge. She recalled: "I was in total shock. I can barely remember that day. I couldn’t believe I was going to jail for something I hadn’t done.” Soon she found herself in New Hall prison in Wakefield, Yorkshire, which includes Rose West, wife of the late serial killer Fred West, among its current inmates.

Former subpostmasters Janet Skinner, Seema Misra and Tracy Felstead outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London (PA)

Janet said: “For the first couple of weeks I barely remember it. It was just a blur. I can’t remember a single thing about the day I was sentenced as I must have just gone into shock. I was on suicide watch for a couple of weeks. I’d lost everything.” Fighting back tears, Janet admits she was distraught to be apart from daughter Toni, 17, and son Matthew, 14. “My daughter didn’t talk to me,” she said. “She couldn’t face what was happening. I didn’t let them come to see me.

“The memory of their mum being in prison was not something I wanted them to have for the rest of their lives. I knew I had to just get on with it for their sake. There were women in there for violent crimes, for life. Drugs were rife. They could get their hands on anything they wanted.” Several weeks later, she was moved to another women's prison, Drake Hall, in Staffordshire.

Former post office worker Janet Skinner (centre), with her niece Hayley Adams (right) and her daughter Toni Sisson, celebrating outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London (PA)

She said: “I knew I was innocent, but it is tough inside. I remember in the gym a girl said, ‘I know you. You’re that bird from Hull who nicked all that money’. All I could say was that she was wrong. The prison officers knew what I was in for. One told me I shouldn’t have been inside.”

In April 2007, Janet was released, but the saga was far from over. She continued to wear and ankle tag and had to stick to a 6pm to 7am curfew for the rest of her sentence. Less than a year later she was back in handcuffs, and was facing a five year stint for not repaying "proceeds of crime". Without money, house or an income, the charges were put aside.

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In February 2022 a public inquiry into the scandal was opened, which is due to continue until late this year (PA)

Janet said: “It never seemed to stop. I had no control of my life. You place so much faith in the justice system, but you have no control when it turns against you. It was soul destroying. It makes you question everything in life.”

It's now emerged that hundreds of former post office workers had been mistakenly accused of stealing, with dozens convicted in court and others jailed. Bates set up a campaign to show their cases and former staff have unified to overturn convictions in court, with 86 of them, including Janet, having had convictions quashed.

In February 2022 a public inquiry into the scandal was opened, which is due to continue until late this year. After her conviction, Janet and other victims received a "personal apology" from millionaire Post Office chairman Tim Parker, who quit days before the inquiry began. But even the Post Office apology was mismanaged. Janet said: “Mine went to the wrong address and I had to pay for it to be redirected.

Thirty-nine former subpostmasters who were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting because of the Post Office's defective Horizon accounting system have had their names cleared by the Court of Appeal. (PA)

"We were told the letter was supposed to be personal, but they were identical, someone had just handwritten in my name. That sums up how much they care — which is not one bit. They don’t accept liability or responsibility. They just care about themselves, their money and their reputations.”

Furthermore, last year it was revealed that certain Post Office chiefs secured huge bonuses for participating in the inquiry. Later, boss Nick Read agreed to pay his back, but Janet is still fighting for compensation. She says money cannot undo all the damage wrought by the Post Office - but hopes the TV drama will raise awareness. She adds: “I’m always surprised by how many people don’t know about this. This is all about justice. I just hope it reflects how many people suffered because of what happened. It’s not about one person. Computer systems don’t send people to prison. The buck needs to stop with people at the top.”

Charlie Duffield