A victim of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal is taking the government-owned organisation to court in a bid to secure full compensation for her wrongful conviction.
Janet Skinner, a former subpostmistress, is believed to be only the second victim to initiate a civil lawsuit against the Post Office. Her solicitor told Sky News she has been "forced" into this legal action after years of campaigning and inadequate settlement offers.
A Long Fight for Justice
Ms Skinner has campaigned for victims of the faulty Horizon software, developed by Fujitsu, for nearly two decades. Between 1999 and 2015, around 1,000 people across the UK were wrongly prosecuted and convicted due to errors generated by the system.
Although her conviction for false accounting was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2021, her fight for financial redress remains unresolved. Lawyer Simon Goldberg stated that Ms Skinner has not received a final payment, was given an insufficient interim sum, and is being asked to provide six different expert reports.
"There's no sign of resolution. We're only forced to do it because enough is enough," Mr Goldberg said. "It's cruel and traumatic beyond belief that she should still have to be fighting."
Inadequate Offers and Broken Promises
Mr Goldberg argued that Ms Skinner's claim should have been settled within 12 months of her conviction being quashed. He added that the interim offers are not aligned with the recommendations of retired High Court judge Sir Wyn Williams, who oversaw the public inquiry into the scandal.
Despite statements from both the Post Office and the Department for Business and Trade in October 2025 that they would "always apply a generous approach" to assessing redress, Ms Skinner's experience tells a different story. Her solicitor revealed she was initially offered a payment worth just 15% of her total claim.
"They've [claim assessors] clearly tried to grind her down and make her give up, and we're not playing," Mr Goldberg asserted.
More Legal Action on the Horizon?
Ms Skinner may not be the last victim to pursue civil litigation. In March 2025, Lee Castleton, another postmaster famously portrayed in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, became the first to take such action.
"Unless there's a sea change, there will definitely be more claims," Mr Goldberg warned, indicating a potential wave of further lawsuits if the redress process does not improve substantially.
The human cost of the scandal for Ms Skinner was profound. In 2007, she received a nine-month prison sentence after Horizon incorrectly showed a £59,000 shortfall. She was imprisoned when her two children were teenagers, released with an ankle tag, and forced to sell her home to avoid repossession.
During this ordeal, she suffered a neurological collapse that left her paralysed from the neck down, and she has since had to relearn how to walk.
A Post Office spokesperson said: "We recognise the devastating impact of the Horizon IT Scandal on former postmasters like Ms Skinner and would like to unequivocally apologise for her experiences. Responsibility for Ms Skinner's redress claim moved to the Department for Business and Trade in June 2025. We cannot comment on ongoing legal proceedings but once we receive the claim, we will engage fully in the process."
