{"id":69425,"date":"2024-06-10T07:37:10","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T07:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/10\/family-of-late-post-office-victim-win-fight-to-clear-her-name\/"},"modified":"2024-06-10T07:37:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T07:37:10","slug":"family-of-late-post-office-victim-win-fight-to-clear-her-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/10\/family-of-late-post-office-victim-win-fight-to-clear-her-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of late Post Office victim win fight to clear her name"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0Katie Hunter,\u00a0<\/span>BBC Scotland News<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Caren Lorimer’s husband David said he was sorry she never lived long enough to see her name cleared<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The family of a convicted sub-postmistress who died before her name was cleared say they have made her final wish come true.<\/p>\n

Caren Lorimer’s family took on her case after her death from cancer in April 2022.<\/p>\n

They were expecting to be back in court this week but her conviction was quashed sooner than expected.<\/p>\n

Caren\u2019s husband David Lorimer said it “meant the world to him” but he was sad that his late wife had died before she was exonerated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Caren had worked in the New Farm Loch Post Office in Kilmarnock for 17 years before an audit in 2008 uncovered an apparent \u00a338,000 shortfall.<\/p>\n

She pled guilty to embezzlement to avoid going to prison. <\/p>\n

At the time Caren had a four-year-old son and an adult daughter.<\/p>\n

In 2009, she was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and forced to pay the Post Office \u00a315,000.<\/p>\n

She was one of hundreds of people across the UK falsely accused of crimes like theft and false accounting.<\/p>\n

The Horizon Post Office scandal has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in the UK in recent times.<\/p>\n

Caren\u2019s family were hoping her name would be cleared at a court hearing on Friday but her niece, Joanne Hughes, received an email from the family’s lawyer ten days ago.<\/p>\n

To her delight it confirmed her aunt’s conviction had been quashed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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(From left to right) David Lorimer, Caren’s niece Joanne Hughes, daughter Laura Miller and son Jack Lorimer said the result meant the world to the family<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Joanne said: “The first thing I did was call David and I don\u2019t even think I said hello, I just said ‘That\u2019s it, she\u2019s clear, she\u2019s clear!’<\/p>\n

“I think we both had goosebumps.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s like we\u2019ve made her final wish come true, which is priceless.”<\/p>\n

David said it was amazing but that his emotions were up and down.<\/p>\n

He added: “I\u2019m really, really happy and I\u2019m really sad that Caren\u2019s not here but she\u2019ll know. She\u2019ll know.<\/p>\n

“She\u2019d be so proud of everything we\u2019ve done her. She\u2019ll be happy up there just now.”<\/p>\n

Caren\u2019s name would likely have been cleared by Scottish Parliament legislation automatically exonerating all affected sub-postmasters. <\/p>\n

The new law will come into force in Scotland once the bill receives royal assent. <\/p>\n

But Caren\u2019s family had already started the process to have her conviction quashed in the appeal court. <\/p>\n

She is the seventh person in Scotland to have their name cleared through that route.<\/p>\n

While Caren\u2019s family are delighted her conviction has been quashed they say it is bittersweet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Caren and her daughter Laura<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Caren\u2019s daughter Laura Miller was 25 when her mum was convicted. <\/p>\n

She told BBC Scotland News it was extremely important for her mother’s name to be cleared.<\/p>\n

Laura said: “I find it most upsetting that she died a convicted criminal. <\/p>\n

“That can\u2019t be undone. I\u2019m happy she\u2019s exonerated but she died a convicted criminal.<\/p>\n

“Something my mum hadn\u2019t done and she\u2019s taken it with her.”<\/p>\n

She said her mother would be delighted that her name had been cleared.<\/p>\n

Laura added: “She knew all along she\u2019d done nothing wrong. So did we. <\/p>\n

“Now it\u2019s just the proof that she really didn\u2019t do it.”<\/p>\n

In Scotland the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) had sole responsibility for prosecuting Horizon cases, whereas in England the Post Office could act as prosecutor.<\/p>\n

The COPFS knew in 2013 there were potential problems with the Post Office Horizon IT system and it officially stopped prosecuting cases in 2015. <\/p>\n

But it didn\u2019t review historic convictions like Caren\u2019s.<\/p>\n

A COPFS spokesman said they empathised with those who had suffered from injustice.<\/p>\n

He added: “Scotland’s prosecutors acted in good faith upon evidence presented to them.<\/p>\n

“When Horizon prosecutions stopped, we had been assured that a further review of cases would not reveal miscarriages of justice.<\/p>\n

“It was only following the litigation in England in 2019 that the true and full extent of the issues with the Horizon system came to light.<\/p>\n

“The actions of the Post Office are being examined in a public inquiry and investigated by police.”<\/p>\n

A Post Office spokesperson said: “We apologise unreservedly to victims of the Horizon IT Scandal and our focus remains on supporting the ongoing public inquiry to establish the truth of what happened so those affected can receive the justice and redress they deserve.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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47 minutes ago By\u00a0Katie Hunter,\u00a0BBC Scotland News BBC Caren Lorimer’s husband David said he was sorry she never lived long enough to see her name cleared The family of a convicted sub-postmistress who died before her name was cleared say they have made her final wish come true. Caren Lorimer’s family took on her case […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[604],"tags":[6477,17,4822,761,1951,418,17710,1460],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69427,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69425\/revisions\/69427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}