Call for postmasters' convictions to be overturned

As Royal Mail enters its busiest time of the year, a University of Exeter expert has said that all of the more than 900 postmasters prosecuted as part of the Horizon IT scandal should have their convictions overturned.

Professor Richard Moorhead, from the University of Exeter Law School, with other members of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, has said those affected, who feel traumatised, cannot put the situation behind them otherwise.

In a letter to Alex Chalk, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, members of the board – its Chair Professor Chris Hodges from the University of Oxford and The Rt Hon Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom, The Rt Hon Kevan Jones MP, and Professor Moorhead – say the only “viable approach” now is to overturn Horizon-related convictions.

This would affect almost 1,000 individuals. The letter says: “There could not have been such a massive outbreak of criminality amongst people who were, and remain, as a group of citizens, careful, law-abiding and trustworthy individuals.”