Widower of jailed Post Office worker loses appeal fight

Ian O’Donnell wanted to posthumously clear the name of his wife Joanne, who died seven years ago aged 64.

Three appeal judges recently considered the case of Mrs O’Donnell, who worked at North Levenshulme Post Office in Manchester, and on Tuesday dismissed the appeal.

Lord Justice Holroyde, Mr Justice Picken and Sir Nigel Davis, who heard arguments at a Court of Appeal hearing in London in June, were told that Mrs O’Donnell had been convicted of theft and given a seven-month jail sentence after a trial at Manchester Crown Court in 2007.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) had referred the case to the Court of Appeal after being contacted by Mr O’Donnell.

A spokesman said the case had been referred in the wake of the Horizon IT scandal.

Lawyers representing the Post Office opposed the appeal.

Errors made by Horizon software, which was made by tech firm Fujitsu and used by the Post Office, led to the wrongful convictions of more than 700 people for false accounting and theft between 1999 and 2015.