A former postmaster languishing behind bars for greater than a decade for murdering his spouse claims he was put there utilizing proof collected from the defective Horizon IT system.
Robin Garbutt, 57, has spent 12 years in jail after being convicted of killing his spouse Diana, 40, upstairs on the put up workplace they ran collectively within the North Yorkshire village of Melsonby in 2011.
Campaigners combating for his launch insist he’s one more harmless sufferer of the Horizon scandal, which noticed greater than 700 postmasters and postmistresses wrongfully convicted.
They are saying a key plank of the prosecution case was that Diana was about to find his theft of 1000’s of kilos. But when that proof – stated to have been gathered utilizing the faulty system – disappears, so does his supposed motive for murdering her.
In his summing as much as the jury, which later convicted Garbutt by a majority of 10 to 2 a yr later at Teesside Crown Courtroom, decide Mr Justice Openshaw stated: ‘It’s the case for the prosecution that cash was being stolen from the Publish Workplace and that the theft was hid by a sequence of false declarations as to the sum of money within the protected.’
Attraction paperwork, seen by The Telegraph, present that proof drawing on the Horizon system was used to exhibit a ‘sample of fraud’.
Garbutt’s supporters additionally declare among the Publish Workplace investigators who gave proof towards him have been concerned within the unsafe convictions of different sub-postmasters for theft and fraud.
He has taken his case to the Felony Circumstances Overview Fee 3 times within the years since in search of a retrial.
However his newest software was refused in November 2022 when the watchdog concluded ‘figures from the Horizon system weren’t important to his conviction for homicide’.
Main educational skilled on miscarriages of justice Dr Michael Naughton, who based Empowering the Harmless and has studied the case, advised the newspaper: ‘The prosecution used the Horizon proof to assist its declare that the motive for the homicide was that Robin Garbutt was stealing cash from the Publish Workplace aspect of the enterprise and he wanted to kill his spouse to cowl it up.
‘Horizon was used to point out he was defrauding the Publish Workplace. I don’t know if Robin Garbutt did or didn’t kill his spouse, however I do know that the proof that led to his conviction is now not dependable and each facet has been discredited.’
Garbutt phoned 999 on March 23, 2010, after apparently discovering Diana’s bloodied physique within the put up workplace’s residing quarters. She was killed by three heavy blows to the top with a rusty iron bar.
He claims the identical balaclava-clad intruder who held him up and compelled him handy over £16,000 from the protected moments earlier was accountable.
Edward Abel Smith, an writer writing a ebook in regards to the case, advised the Telegraph: ‘They used Horizon information to construct an image which confirmed Robin had been stealing from the Publish Workplace for a while and was now utilizing the theft to cowl up the lacking cash.’
Regardless of the brutality of the homicide, there was no forensic proof tying Garbutt to the crime scene. No blood spatter was discovered on his garments and none of his DNA was recovered from both the pillowcase or the iron bar which was discovered on high of a wall throughout the highway two days later.
Proof regarding Diana’s time of loss of life can also be massively contested.
Jurors had been advised she died between 2.30am and 4.30am – lengthy earlier than the put up workplace’s central locking system allowed the protected to be opened, at 8.30am.
The assertion seemingly blew an enormous gap in Garbutt’s claims of a theft gone improper.
However the skilled instructed by his authorized crew subsequently concluded the time of loss of life might have been a lot later than 4.30am – probably even after 6.45am.
The revelation signifies it will have been nearly unattainable for Garbutt to have carried out the homicide as a result of the until roll exhibits a stream of shoppers from 5.15am by to round 8.30am that morning.
Lots of these gave proof on the trial and all recalled Garbutt seeming his regular self.
In an announcement refusing to refer Garbutt’s case for retrial, the CCRC stated in November 2022: ‘A lot of Mr Garbutt’s software to the CCRC targeted on the Publish Workplace Horizon scandal, which has led to quite a few fraud and theft convictions of former Publish Workplace staff being overturned, many after referral by the CCRC.
‘The CCRC determined that this argument couldn’t help Mr Garbutt, as figures from the Horizon system weren’t important to his conviction for homicide.
‘Different points regarding scientific proof had been additionally thought-about, and the CCRC has now made a ultimate resolution to not refer his case for an enchantment.’
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