Post Office scandal victims must 'never be forgotten', says OBE campaigner

The oldest surviving victim of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal has said the lives destroyed by the affair should "never be forgotten" as she celebrated being made an OBE in the New Year Honours.

Betty Brown, who at 92 is the oldest person honoured in Monday's list and thought to be the oldest victim of the scandal, was rewarded for seeking justice for subpostmasters affected by the affair. Ms Brown, told Sky News it was "absolutely wonderful" to receive the honour.

She said postmasters had been jailed and some had taken, or tried to take, their own lives, following the scandal, which has been linked to 13 deaths. It also led to "broken marriages" and "children left neglected" as victims' "whole lives [were] ruined over the last 20 years".

She was strongly critical of ministers who had "stood back knowing what was happening, knowing they were at fault and doing nothing about it". "That should never be forgotten," she said.

"The destruction that they have done to these lives... that's what that honour stands for".

Around 1,000 people were wrongly prosecuted and convicted throughout the UK between 1999 and 2015 as a result of faulty auditing of accounts caused by the Horizon computer programme. Ms Brown, from County Durham, was one of the original victims who took part in the group legal action, led by Sir Alan Bates, against the Post Office.

She ran the Annfield Plain Post Office near Stanley with her late husband Oswall from 1985 to 2003, and estimates they lost around £100,000 of their own money to cover the non-existent shortfalls. She said her hardest moment was when the auditors came on the day her husband had a cancer appointment, where he got "a good result from the specialists".

Their good spirits were dashed when the visitors told them they were "£3,000 short.