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Post Office scandal: Exonerated former postmistress Jo Hamilton shares her story

Former Post Office branch manager Jo Hamilton was falsely accused in the Horizon scandal.

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 Post Office branch managers were convicted of false accounting, theft and fraud based on faulty software.

Jo Hamilton was one of those who was falsely accused. Her conviction was quashed in 2021, and her story has now been told in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs. The Post Office.

Jo joined Clare McDonnell on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour to discuss her experience and why she’s so glad that the scandal is now in the spotlight.

She also gave Clare her reaction to a petition calling for the former Post Office chief executive, Paula Vennells, to lose her CBE receiving more than one million signatures.

A public inquiry into the scandal is ongoing. Yesterday, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, told the Â鶹ԼÅÄ the Government was reviewing options to help victims of the scandal.

A Post Office spokesperson said: “We’re deeply sorry and are doing all we can to right the wrongs of the past as far as that is possible. Offers of compensation totalling more than £130 million have been made to date, the vast majority of which have been agreed and paid.

“We’re continuing to make interim payments in other cases. We fully share the aims of the current Public Inquiry, set up to establish what went wrong in the past and the accountability for it.â€

You can listen to the full interview on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sounds – it’s the Woman’s Hour episode from 8 January.

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Duration:

1 minute