There are calls for the Post Office to pay for therapy and mental health treatment for sub-postmasters and their families. ITV News Investigations Editor Daniel Hewitt reports on the devastating impact the scandal has had on the lives of some of the victims
Wrongly accused and wrongly convicted Subpostmasters have said the Post Office should pay for therapy and counselling “for life” due to the ongoing trauma caused by the Horizon IT Scandal.
Victims and their families say those who need mental health support should not have to wait for compensation or use their own money to pay for help.
A new study, ‘Understanding the Impacts of the Post Office Scandal’, shared exclusively with ITV News, has documented for the first time the ongoing psychological and emotional damage inflicted to the men and women who were interrogated and incarcerated due to errors in the Post Office’s IT system run by Fujitsu.
The report by University College London and the University of Exeter is part of the ‘Post Office Project,’ which has interviewed dozens of subpostmasters and their families, and aims to explore the ethical and legal lessons from the Horizon Scandal to improve the criminal justice system.
Parmod Kalia ran a Post Office Branch in Orpington in Kent for over a decade when he was wrongly accused of theft in 2001. The father of four was sentenced to six months in prison and forced to pay £22,000 to the Post Office despite there being no proof he stole it.
He says the conviction destroyed his life and nearly cost him his marriage. He told ITV News he sought therapy after attempting to take his own life.
“It was horrendous, it was horrible… 25 years of my life has been ruined by the Post Office,” Parmod says.
“My children did actually ask me at the time, ‘Dad, have you taken the money?’. They were six and nine years old at the time.”
Mr Kalia says his health and relationships with his family have suffered as a result of his wrongful conviction.
He says his daughters have also struggled with the long-term impact of his wrongful conviction.
“I feel empathy for my children because they’ve had to go through a lot…. It’s trauma that hasn’t ended yet… There’s still no closure,” Parmod tells us.
“I’ve been through therapy, counselling. There was a point where I contemplated taking my own life on three occasions.”
Does he think the Post Office should be covering the cost of therapy for sub-postmasters?
“They need to be paying,” he says.
The study also heard how victims feel like they are “going to need therapy for a long time” and any “relapses…have to be factored in because of the damage” that has been done.
Tracey Merritt was accused of stealing money in 2009 from the two Post Offices she ran in Somerset with her daughter Lisa. Tracey spoke to researchers from UCL and the University of Exeter about her experience for this new study.
She was threatened with prosecution, and told Lisa would be too if she did not cut off contact with her. As a result, Tracey didn’t see her daughter for 18 months.
“They took my everything. Absolutely everything. They took away the person I am.”
“I’ve got PTSD so I need to be able to deal with that because that’s a scary place to be… I’ve been told I have to have some serious help but that costs money which I have to pay for out of my compensation, but I haven’t had that compensation.”
“They are still messing with our lives, so yes, they should [pay for therapy].”
Interviews with other victims for the project has found the long wait for justice and the ongoing battle to be paid full and final compensation has left sub-postmasters “feeling revictimized…distrustful of the institutions of government and mechanisms of justice, as well as the Post Office.”
Professor Richard Moorhead, who leads the Post Office Project and co-authored the study alongside Dr Karen Nokes at UCL and Dr Sally Day and Professor Rachel Helm at Exeter, told ITV News that the long process of receiving full and final compensation was contributing to the trauma experienced by sub-postmasters.
“It feels like to the sub-postmasters, fighting over every detail. Making them re-prove that things went wrong and that they have been harmed,” Professor Moorhead said.
“It’s those sorts of things that have increased the cycle of pain for these people… These people are likely to need help for a long time and it’s really important that they get all the help they need to deal with this.”
“It’s enormous,” Sir Alan Bates, long-time campaigner for sub-postmasters, says of the psychological impact of the scandal.
“It’s not just the sub-postmasters who have been [impacted] by this. It goes right across the families. It’s horrendous.”
“But the government refuse to accept that… they will not take on board the damage that’s been inflicted on families as part of any settlement or in a review of cases. It’s clearly based on the sub-postmasters’ earnings. But many of these businesses were family-run,” he said.
On the impact of the scandal on him personally, Sir Alan said, “It’s an endless job, really, one day after the next. I don’t know if it’s got an impact on me. I just get on regardless because you can’t let it go. When people have suffered so badly in all of this.”
Parmod Kalia is one of the sub-postmasters still suffering as a result of the scandal. He is one of more than 4,300 subpostmasters still awaiting full and final compensation. Diagnosed with cancer two and a half years ago, he believes his final redress payment may come too late.
“I’m taking it one day at a time,” former sub-postmaster tells ITV News as he waits for his final redress payment.
“I’ve been undergoing treatment… Every day I wake up in the morning, I thank God I’ve got another day. I don’t know about my own personal health, how long it’s going to be, how long it’s going to last, but I’m just taking it one day at a time,” he says.
Some sub-postmasters told the study they believe the Post Office is intentionally trying to drag out the compensation process.
“They’re [Post Office] just making people suffer for longer. And it makes me think, do they just want people to die before they can get to the point of taking the compensation? When you listen to families that have died and it’s been passed onto their children, to follow this through for an outcome, it’s just not right is it? Morally, ethically, it’s just not right.”
The report also argues the “generational trauma caused from the scandal needs to be recognised, addressed, and appropriately responded to. Partners, children and now even grandchildren of SPMs live in the shadow cast on the first victims of the Post Office Scandal.”
Dr Roman Raczka, President of the British Psychological Society, is calling on the government to fund therapy for sub-postmasters and their families.
“It’s vitally important that they receive therapy. We would support that call for the government to put the funding in to provide additional support, provide that psychological therapy for those individuals and for their family members who have been victims of the terribly harrowing events,” Dr Raczka told ITV News.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade, which has oversight of the compensation schemes said, “we recognise the significant impact this awful scandal had on many postmasters’ mental health, as this report highlights. That’s why we’re paying claims faster than ever before and have ensured the redress schemes available allow victims to claim therapy costs for support they need.”
A Post Office spokesperson said, “We are sincerely sorry for past failings that have caused suffering to postmasters and are focused, alongside Government, on paying redress as quickly as possible so that people can move forward with their lives.”
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