Luke Huxham will never forget the last time he saw his father, Peter, who died alone in a bedsit after being wrongly convicted in the Post Office Horizon scandal. The once-proud subpostmaster had been found dead in July 2020, his body undiscovered for three weeks until neighbours complained of the smell.
Peter's life unravelled after auditors found a shortfall of £16,158 in his accounts at the Starcross, Devon, Post Office. He was sent to prison, his marriage ended after 26 years, and his family was divided. Believing his wife Jacqui had stolen the money, he died thinking she was the criminal—never learning he was a victim of Britain's worst miscarriage of justice.
His son Luke, now 35, recalls a happy childhood before the Horizon system was installed. “He was chuffed with the new system,” Luke said. But tension grew, and in September 2009, auditors locked them out of the post office. Jacqui, 63, remembers Peter accusing her: “I told him that he was the one who must have done it,” she said.
The last encounter between Peter and Jacqui was violent. “He threw me against the wall, putting his arm on my throat,” she said. Luke also faced his father, pushing him out of the post office. “It was an unpleasant encounter,” Luke said. “Now I know it was just desperation.”
Peter died before seeing his sons married or meeting his six grandchildren. Despite the Prime Minister's announcement of a law to exonerate all victims, Jacqui, left penniless by the Horizon errors, may not receive compensation.
