Inside case of former postmaster who is possibly one of biggest Post Office scandal victim

Robin Garbutt, 58, potentially one of the biggest victims of the deepening Post Office scandal, is currently serving life for murdering his wife.

He claims his Post Office in Melsonby, North Yorkshire was robbed by an armed gang who plundered £16,000 from the safe and beat his wife Diana, 40, to death in their flat above the shop.

He was convicted of murder in 2011 but the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which he watched from his cell, has sparked fresh hope he could clear his name.

The discredited Horizon accounting system, he claims, played a pivotal role in being framed for a crime he did not commit.

His story was revealed in an Express investigation last April.

Now entering his 13th year behind bars, Garbutt continues to maintain his innocence and says the flawed IT system was used to produce evidence he had his hand in the till.

Prosecutors claimed Garbutt had killed his postmistress wife over suspicions she was having an affair and fears his fraud was about to be unearthed.

He claimed he was robbed at gunpoint and his wife battered to death. His defence was rejected by a jury and he was jailed for a minimum of 20 years. Garbutt, incarcerated in Category C Wealstun Prison in Wetherby, is not eligible for parole until 2030.

He said: “I am very grateful to the Daily Express for reporting on my case and to your readers. I have spent over a decade trying to make people aware of what has happened. Although my story is very different to those other poor souls who suffered at the hands of the Post Office, Horizon played a large part in my conviction.”

Post Office investigators used data retrieved from Horizon to claim the Melsonby branch was asking for more cash to be delivered than it needed. Garbutt contests this.

A witness statement said “the pattern in particular that is shown (from Horizon) is one I have seen replicated across many Post Office fraud cases in the past”.

It has since emerged the same investigator wrongly accused David Blakey of stealing £65,000 from the Post Office he ran in Grimsby. In her witness statement to Horizon inquiry in 2022 his wife Gillian revealed she was told he was leading a double life as an unfaithful gambler.

Garbutt, who is set to mount another appeal case, claims he was painted as devious and dishonest with the missing £16,000 providing a motive to murder his wife. In short, dodgy IT data was used to frame him for murder.

He said: “I believe the Post Office wrongly built a theory about my financial situation and personal life, which the prosecution then used to convict me.”

“All I ask is that I can have a fair trial where accurate information is given to a jury.”

“People say I am fighting for my own justice. But I’m not. I am fighting for Di, who did absolutely nothing wrong but was taken away from us so brutally. That’s what this is all about.”

“I want justice for poor Di. So if I have to stay in prison forever, that is what I will do to find answers for my wife.”

Garbutt has taken his case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission three times previously hoping to force a retrial. On each occasion his application has been thrown out, most recently in November when it concluded “figures from the Horizon system were not essential to his conviction for murder”.

But the ratings phenomenon Mr Bates vs The Post Office, the four-art drama starring Toby Jones as wronged Postmaster Alan Bates, has galvanised Garbutt, his supporters and legal team into believing his conviction could finally be overturned. A central plank of any appeal rests on Horizon data falsely painting a “pattern of fraud”.

In 2011 the prosecution in his murder trial relied heavily on the theory Garbutt was motivated to cover up a massive fraud. He was told during sentencing at Teesside Crown Court that because of financial irregularities proved by the Post Office his thefts “would have been exposed”.

His supporters argue the case needs to be reexamined in the wake of the public outcry over the national scandal and due to a litany of inconsistencies, including errors in the original police investigation, which were described by Judge Peter Openshaw as having a “regrettable lack of professionalism”.

Campaigners say no forensic evidence links Garbutt to the murder weapon – an iron bar found by police on a wall nearby two days after the killing.

Evidence over the time of Diana’s death is also disputed. The prosecution alleged she was killed in the middle of the night – rather than at 8.30am at the time of the robbery. Not one customer noticed anything strange about Garbutt’s demeanour when the shop opened.

The ITV series, which shocked and stunned Britain, was first broadcast on January 1 and had such an impact that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Garbutt’s local MP, addressed the House of Commons confirming the Government would act to redress those wronged in one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history.

It was the first full and official acknowledgement that only an across-the-board exoneration can come close to redressing a huge injustice. Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells, lauded and given a CBE in 2019 for her stewardship of the business but under whose watch prosecutions took place, was last week forced into handing back her gong amid a vicious public backlash.

Yet the scandal first erupted almost 25 years earlier to little attention.

Between 1999 and 2015 more than 900 sub postmasters were prosecuted for theft, false accounting and fraud because of branch cash shortfalls due to errors within accounting software. In 2019, the High Court ruled the Horizon system was faulty and in 2020 a public inquiry was set up.

Across 20 years, more than 700 people were hauled to court. They were sacked, forced to repay huge “losses”, jailed and ostracised in their communities. Some committed suicide after being declared bankrupt, losing their homes, and marriages.

Author Edward Abel Smith, who is writing a book on the case, said: “I simply do not know whether or not Robin killed his wife. However, having researched the case for two years now and been given access to all the Garbutt’s paperwork, I do not believe his conviction is safe. Although Horizon only plays a small part in the prosecution’s case, we cannot second guess what swayed the jury to find him guilty by a majority verdict.”