Post workplace proprietor says Horizon system used to border him for spouse’s homicide | EUROtoday

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A Post Office proprietor has claimed the Horizon IT system used to wrongly jail postmasters was used to border him for his spouse’s homicide.

The Horizon scandal noticed greater than 700 subpostmasters and subpostmistresses handed legal convictions after defective Fujitsu accounting software program made it seem as if cash was lacking at their branches.

Now Robin Garbutt, who’s at the moment serving a life sentence for murdering his spouse, is making an attempt to attraction his conviction saying proof relied on in the course of the trial is defective.

His spouse, Diana, was bludgeoned to loss of life within the couple’s flat above the put up workplace in North Yorkshire on 23 March 2010. Garbutt has at all times maintained his innocence, insisting {that a} man carrying a balaclava and holding a gun compelled him handy over £16,000 in money saying that he “had” his spouse.

Garbutt claimed that he handed over the money and ran upstairs to search out his spouse lifeless. The prosecution claimed that he could have staged the theft to cowl up losses reported on the Horizon accounting system.

They claimed that Garbutt had killed his spouse within the early hours of the morning, went on to open up the put up workplace as typical after which name 999 in regards to the theft. The trial heard {that a} related armed theft had occurred to the enterprise a 12 months beforehand.

A gun and balaclava have been additionally discovered behind a pub, half-hour away from Garbutt’s put up workplace, however this was thought to not be related by police.

According to The Guardian, the couple have been having marriage troubles, with Diana having relationships with different males. There was additionally proof of economic pressure that was separate from the put up workplace losses, with the couple in hundreds of kilos of debt.

Garbutt spoke to The Guardian from jail, saying that he had watched the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office that has sparked nationwide outrage on the remedy of the subpostmasters.

He stated that whereas his case was totally different “the way the Post Office dealt with me was the same way that they dealt with the other people”.

He claimed that information from the Horizon IT system “was used in court to make me look bad” and that the system had “lots of problems”.

Applications to attraction his conviction have beforehand been rejected however Garbutt claims to have new monetary data that dispute proof offered by Post Office consultants to the trial.

However Diana’s mom, Agnes Gaylor, stated that Garbutt was simply “taking advantage” of the Horizon scandal to “gain publicity.”