WE WERE DESTROYED

£16k 'shortfall' put postmaster in jail and caused huge family split. He died alone in bedsit aged 63, still believing wife stole the money

- MATT ROPER

JACQUI Huxham has a terrible memory of the last time she saw her husband Peter.

Only a few years earlier they were the happy couple running their village post office.

"It was just after the mediation session so we could get divorced after 26 years of marriage," Jacqui remembers.

"He followed me to the car park screaming I had ruined his life because I stole the money that had got him sent to prison.

"He was desperate. His life was in pieces. And I still thought he was the criminal."

Few more distressing stories have emerged since ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office put the 25-year Post Office accounting scandal back in the headlines.

DESTITUTE

The false accusations against Peter, who had been sub-postmaster for over 25 years until auditors found a shortfall of £16,158 in his accounts, led to him going to jail, destroyed his marriage, drove a split through his family and left him destitute and friendless.

And it ended in the worst possible way. He died aged 63 in a lonely bedsit in a suspected suicide in July 2020. It was three weeks until his body was found, after neighbours started to complain about the smell.