I just looked at the bairns and thought, God, I can't leave them'

Horizon scandal postmistress on how close she came to suicide

- PAUL BYRNE, KEVIN DONALD

A FORMER sub-postmistress has told how staring at pictures of her children stopped her from killing herself as her life fell apart amid the Horizon IT scandal.

Sharon Brown said she "nearly did something stupid" but pulled back from the brink when she saw photographs of her two sons.

She said: "If I hadn't seen the pictures of the bairns, I wouldn't be sitting with you now. I just looked at them and thought, 'God, I can't leave them bairns."

As the inquiry into the scandal continues today, Sharon revealed she fell into despair after she was falsely accused of stealing £36,000 from her Post Office in Pennywell, Sunderland.

Sharon, 63, said: "I came close to taking my own life, which is something I never thought I'd ever say.

"It was somewhere around 2013 or 2014, the exact dates of things have been wiped out by the stress of everything we have gone through.

"I just couldn't sleep at that time so I was up during the night and things were running around in my head.