Post Office scandal report details powerful evidence from Telford victim and finds 'dozens' contemplated suicide
An inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal has found that dozens of wrongly accused people contemplated suicide - and heard powerful evidence of a Telford victim's harrowing experiences.
The conclusions came in the first report from the inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal, delivered by the retired judge Sir Wyn Williams.
Bankruptcy, divorce and vitriolic abuse from the public were among the other “harrowing” experiences laid bare in a long-awaited report.
Sir Wyn's report also highlighted the evidence of Telford victim Tracy Felstead, who was wrongly convicted and jailed in 2002 after being accused of stealing £11,503.28.
Ms Felstead gave harrowing evidence to the inquiry in 2022, when she told how she was held in a secure psychiatric hospital after twice trying to take her own life.
Sir Wyn's report stated: "In 2001, Ms Felstead was investigated over an apparent loss at her place of work of £11,503.28.
"There followed criminal proceedings in which Ms Felstead was charged with stealing that sum and two offences of false accounting.
"In her oral evidence at the Inquiry, Ms Felstead told me that, in consequence, she attempted to take her own life on two separate occasions.
"Following one of those occasions, she was admitted to a secure psychiatric unit at hospital where she was given psychotherapy treatment and medication."
The report also described Ms Felstead's experience after being sentenced to six months in prison - which she should have served in a young offenders institution, but was instead sent to an adult prison.
Sir Wyn said: "Notwithstanding that her sentence was to be served at a young offender institution, Ms Felstead was imprisoned at HMP Holloway – a prison for adult women.
"While she was waiting to be transferred to a suitable young offender institution, Ms Felstead was deployed to serve meals to prisoners.
"On an occasion which, no doubt, will be forever seared on her mind, she opened a cell door to find that a prisoner had hanged herself and was dead.
"Ms Felstead maintains – and I have no difficulty in accepting – that her experiences at Holloway Prison will live with her forever."
