A former subpostmaster has claimed that false data from the Horizon system was used to wrongfully convict him of his wife’s murder. Robin Garbutt, 58, was found guilty of murdering his wife Diana 12 years ago and has been in prison since.
He has been accused by Diana’s mother of “taking advantage of the Horizon scandal to gain publicity”. A forensic scientist said during the trial that due to the level of digestion, Diana must have died between 2.30am and 4.30am. This evidence has since been declared unreliable.
Garbutt claims that a man in a balaclava holding a gun came into the Melsonby Post Office at 8.30am and demanded the £16,000 in the safe.
He says he then went upstairs to find his wife dead, hit over the head three times with a metal bar.
One customer who gave a witness statement even told the jury that he heard a woman’s voice calling “Robin” from the door to the couple’s living quarters at about 6.45am.
But two pathologists agreed that Diana had died at least an hour before Garbutt phoned 999, more likely several hours earlier due to the level of rigor mortis and “postmortem staining”.
Talking from his cell in HMP Wealstu, Garbutt told The Guardian that untrustworthy data from the Horizon system was presented at his trial to create a false motive, saying he had been stealing and staged the robbery to cover it up. Asked if he was “jumping on the Horizon bandwagon”, Garbutt said: “I would say you need look at all the other evidence in my case.”
He said he would “never” confess to the murder, even if it meant he spent the rest of his life in prison. He was given a 20-year sentence, not to be eligible for parole until 2030.
“The only way we’ll ever find out what happened to my wife is that we just pray and pray and pray at some point that the case gets reviewed, and we get the person who killed Di.”
Garbutt said. “If I have to stay in prison for ever and ever and ever we will be fighting for Di, all of us. That’s what it’s all about. It’s about my poor wife, who did nothing wrong that morning and is not here any more.”
