Former sub-postmaster Harjinder Butoy spent more time in prison than any other victim of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal.
After 18 months in jail, it then took another 15 years to clear his name. He is one of dozens of sub-postmasters who gave evidence to the official inquiry into what happened.
The inquiry chair, Sir Wyn Williams, will deliver the first part of his final report on Tuesday, which will focus on the human impact of the scandal and will also look at compensation.
But Mr Butoy is not sure he will be able to watch. “It’s going to bring back too many bad memories for me,” he told the BBC, adding he needs “someone to be punished”.
The Post Office scandal is believed to be one of the biggest miscarriages of justices in UK history.
Thousands of victims were wrongly blamed for financial losses from the faulty Horizon computer system which was rolled out across the Post Office branch network from 1999.
More than 900 people were prosecuted and 236 were sent to prison.
Mr Butoy was one of them, convicted of stealing more than £200,000 from his branch in Nottinghamshire in 2007.
“We lost everything from the day I got sentenced. We lost our business. I had to declare bankruptcy. My wife and three kids had to move back in with my parents, ” he says.
After he was released from prison his conviction meant he struggled to find work and his health also suffered.
“I just want everyone to know the impact, what’s happened to us all. But I also need someone to be punished and let them go to prison and feel like what we’ve been through,” he says.
His conviction was overturned in 2021. Parliament later passed a law exonerating all those who had been convicted.
‘Huge day’
The inquiry heard from 189 people who gave evidence on how the scandal had turned their lives upside down.
Many lost their businesses, some lost their homes, and most lost their reputations and financial security.
The second part of the inquiry’s report – on how the scandal happened and why – may not be published until 2026.
