Horizon postmistress who died of cancer ‘couldn’t fight disease and Post Office’ at same time
A sub-postmistress who died while trying to clear her name amid the Horizon scandal could not fight both cancer and the Post Office, her children have said.
Fiona Watson ran a branch in Gainsborough, Lincs, with her husband from 1999 to 2003, during which the couple won Post Office of the Year.
However, just a year later Post Office auditors contacted the family to say shortfalls had been recorded on their branch accounts.
Thomas and Katie Watson, Ms Watson’s son and daughter, say their mother “was treated like a criminal” and died while trying to prove her innocence, after being diagnosed with lymphoma during the investigation.
The siblings told their mother’s story in Surviving the Post Office, a BBC documentary presented by actor Will Mellor, who played Horizon victim Lee Castleton in ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongfully prosecuted after Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon software incorrectly recorded shortfalls on their accounts.
Speaking to Mellor, the bereaved son and daughter said the Post Office had been filled with “love and happiness” when they first moved there in 1999, when they were aged eight and 10 years old.
However, things changed dramatically once money was wrongly found to be missing from the branch accounts.
Kate Watson told Mellor: “As far as I was concerned, everything was absolutely fine and then the next day my mum’s being treated like a criminal.”
She said her mother was given “two choices” by the Post Office, following an internal investigation and a formal hearing. She was told that she could “go home” to her children if she admitted she was guilty and repaid all the money the Post Office claimed she had lost.
Alternatively, Post Office employees are said to have claimed the business had enough evidence to prosecute her if she maintained her innocence.
After choosing the former option, the sub-postmistress was suspended and ordered to make repayment.
Devastating diagnosis
The family later went on to receive even more devastating news.
Mr Watson said: “Towards the end of the investigation, she noticed a lump had appeared in her armpit and had gone to the doctor to have it checked.”
Doctors diagnosed cancer of the lymphatic system and she died in October 2014.
Mr Watson added: “Thinking about what Mum was going through at that point, I can’t even begin to comprehend the sheer magnitude of it in her mind – having to hold it together for the sake of the rest of the family.”
His sister added: “She was trying to battle that at the same time as battling to prove her innocence and, you know, you’re sat on the sofa trying to recover from having surgery and you’ve got strangers walking in your house, who look at you like you’ve done wrong.”
She added: “She couldn’t do both – fight cancer and fight the Post Office. She tried. She really tried. But she couldn’t do both.”
A Post Office spokesman said: “We are truly sorry for the suffering caused to so many people by Post Office’s past actions.”
They added: “We recognise that victims of the scandal and their families cannot move on until full redress has been paid and both Post Office and Government are committed to doing so as quickly as possible.”
A Department for Business and Trade spokesman said: “The Horizon scandal is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our history and we have a duty to right the wrongs it has caused to so many postmasters and their families.
“In cases where a postmaster has sadly passed away, their family – or whoever inherits their estate – is eligible to make a claim to the relevant Horizon redress scheme.”
