A former Cambridgeshire sub-postmistress caught up in the Post Office Horizon scandal says an ITV drama has “portrayed what happened really well”.
Jennifer O’Dell, 74, is among the hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses who were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system.
In 2009, her branch account for Great Staughton, near St Neots, began to show a shortfall of more than £9,600.
The account was closed the following year and the Post Office accused her of misconduct even though she had done nothing wrong.
In 2022, she told an independent inquiry the entire experience left her with PTSD, suffering night terrors and contemplating suicide.
Old friends would cross the road to avoid speaking to her.
She said: “I thought [the drama] was brilliant – it portrayed what happened really well.
“I could particularly relate to the bit where the sub-postmistress Jo Hamilton is sitting on the floor with all the paperwork around her.
“There was also Lee Castleton sitting at the table with all his papers, trying to work out what was going on... And yes, that’s what I was doing.
“I was getting up at two o’clock in the morning and going downstairs to go through the paperwork.
“My husband would come downstairs an hour later and ask: ‘What are you doing?’ And I had all the papers around me, trying to find out what on earth was going on.
“The drama really did portray a lot of frustration and anger of what we went through. It was very, very good.”
Last Saturday (January 6) marked exactly 14 years since Mrs O’Dell’s own account was closed.
To prove her innocence, among her arguments was that her account was closed at 9am - and a document from the Post Office alleging misconduct stated she had used the Horizon terminal two hours later at 10.55am.
Something, she says, that "could not have been true”.
- Recommended Reading: Former sub-postmistress contemplated taking her life after untrue false accounting claims
- Top Story: Storm Henk: Record-breaking flooding across Huntingdonshire
- Top Story: American XL bully: Complaints of attacks in Huntingdonshire
While Mrs O’Dell was never prosecuted, she woke up “every morning” afterwards expecting a court summons.
Since Mr Bates vs the Post Office was aired, Mrs O'Dell has joined calls for the Post Office’s former chief executive Paula Vennells to be stripped of her CBE.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “It would be inappropriate to comment on any individual honours recipient."
The ongoing Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry is being led by retired high court judge Sir Wyn Williams.
He will look at the failings which occurred with the IT system at the Post Office, leading to the suspension and the termination of contracts and prosecution and conviction of Post Office staff.
It will also consider whether Post Office Limited has learned lessons and embedded sufficient cultural change.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “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.
“We are acutely aware of the human cost of the scandal and are doing all we can to right the wrongs of the past, as far as that is possible.
“Both Post Office and government are committed to providing full, fair and final compensation for the people affected.
“To date, offers of compensation totalling more than £138m have been made to around 2,700 postmasters.
“Interim payments continue to be made in other cases which have not yet been resolved.
“We hope the ITV drama will raise further awareness and encourage anyone affected who has not yet come forward to seek compensation to do so.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here