Subpostmistress ‘vindicated' by OBE but vows to continue Horizon scandal fight
Jo Hamilton, 68, was falsely prosecuted for a shortfall of £36,000 at her Post Office branch in South Warnborough, Hampshire, in 2006.
Mrs Hamilton, who was played by Monica Dolan in the drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, said being honoured for services to justice by the Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace on Thursday was 'beautiful'.
She told the PA news agency: 'I feel honoured to be honoured but the fight continues.
'We're still at war until the rest of the postmasters are paid, which is just awful.'
She added: 'I do feel vindicated but I can't rest.
'You'd think that after everything that this is the cherry on the cake but I can't stop because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my colleagues.'
Mrs Hamilton continued: 'Everyone needs to be paid what's right and let everyone get on with their lives because we're all running out of road.
'I'm 22 years older than when it started, I shouldn't have to still be fighting.'
On receiving the letter about her honour, she said: 'You can't mistake the envelope, I knew it was something important.
'It was lovely to receive and it's just another step on my journey to get proper redress for everybody.'
The Government announced earlier this month that more than £1 billion has been paid out to subpostmasters across the Horizon-related schemes.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 subpostmasters were prosecuted after faulty Horizon accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their accounts.
Many are still awaiting compensation.
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an hour ago
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Post Office: Police identify seven suspects related to Horizon scandal
Police investigating the Horizon Post Office scandal have now identified seven suspects, with more than 45 people classed as "persons of interest". A "scaled-up" national team of officers has been in place for over six months as part of Operation Olympos - dedicated to looking at crimes related to the Horizon Post Office scandal. The number of suspects has increased to seven since before Christmas, as part of a UK-wide investigation involving 100 officers. Four have now been interviewed under caution. Hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongfully convicted of stealing after faulty computer software created false accounting shortfalls in Post Office branches between 1999 and 2015. Commander Stephen Clayman, Gold Command for Operation Olympos, described a "huge shift" in terms of their investigation and "significant progress". "We've got over four million documents that are going to rise to about six million documents," he said, "but we're beginning to methodically work through those and looking at individuals who are associated with certain prosecutions." He described a "pool of about 45 people plus" classed as "persons of interest", with that number "expected to grow". He added that officers have questioned "some" in the past and "more recently" and are looking at the offences of perverting the course of justice and perjury. The "wider pool" of persons of interest is made up of Post Office investigators, lawyers, and "management" across Fujitsu and the Post Office. 11:28 The team of officers will be identifying actions which could amount to criminal offences on both an individual and corporate basis. Any decisions made on whether to charge will not happen until after the Post Office inquiry findings are "published and reviewed". The Operation Olympos officers are part of four teams - a London hub and three regional teams - who have been described as "highly motivated" across England and Wales. Police Scotland and the Police Service of Northern Ireland are also helping. Cmdr Clayman said that officers "will be building a robust case" to pass on to the Crown Prosecution Service. He also added that, compared to the inquiry, his officers will have to "prove this to the criminal standard…a much, much higher standard". He described feeling "optimistic" and "confident" that the teams will have "some successful outcomes", and said they are "working as hard and as quickly as (they) can". Teams are involved in what has been described as a "focused strategy which gets to the heart of the issues". Their investigations are being overseen by the National Police Chiefs' Council and the Metropolitan Police. Victims have also been told that the police will not be reinvestigating every case but "taking a speculative look at cases" to focus on key people involved and evidence for prosecution. Operation Olympos is also making use of special software to help process the amount of evidence to sift through material in relation to key events and identified cases. Of the four suspects interviewed under caution, two were questioned in late 2021, one in late 2024 and the most recent in early 2025.
South Wales Argus
an hour ago
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Asked at the event why he did not report John Smyth in 2013 when he first heard of allegations made against him, Mr Welby said: 'First of all, I first knew of John Smyth's abuse in 2013 at the beginning of August, when one person in Cambridge disclosed to the diocesan safeguarding advisor that they had been abused. 'A few days later, I had a report through my chaplain who had been rung up from the Diocese of Ely, which Cambridge is in, saying … there was an allegation of abuse by one person. 'I didn't know the full details of the abuse until 2017 – that is clearly in the report … 'And it wasn't until about 2021, in a meeting with Keith Makin, that I discovered there were more than 100 people who had been physically abused. 'I disagree with the report on that … it's not truth. 'Secondly, I certainly didn't know about anything in Zimbabwe for the same period, and that emerged steadily as well.' Mr Welby added that, in 2013, he only knew of one person alleging they had been abused by Smyth, and that he was in the midst of dealing with other prominent cases of sexual abuse within the Church. Mr Welby said: 'I was dealing at the time with Peter Ball, the bishop of Gloucester, where we knew there were at least 30 victims, and he was going to prison, obviously, and one of those victims had committed suicide. 'That was among many cases that were coming out, and they were obviously getting my attention. 'I was focusing my attention on making sure it didn't happen again. 'I don't apologise for that. 'The worst of all possible things would have been to say, we're not going to change the system sufficiently to reduce the chances of such appalling events with such lifelong damage to survivors happening again.' The former archbishop, however, acknowledged he was 'insufficiently persistent' in bringing Smyth to justice while he was still alive – which ultimately compelled him to step down from his role as archbishop of Canterbury. Mr Welby also said he was seeing a psychotherapist with whom he has been discussing the time of his resignation, which he described as 'one of the loneliest moments I've ever had'. Asked about what he would have done differently, Mr Welby replied: 'I have thought a great deal about that. 'One must be very careful about making it sound as though it was all about me. It's really not. 'There will be people here who've been abused, who are the victims of abuse, sexual abuse, or physical abuse, emotional abuse, and I've been very open that I'm one of them, so I'm aware of what it means. 'There were two reasons it was right to resign. 'One was, although I thought I had done at the time everything I should have done, I hadn't. 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Glasgow Times
an hour ago
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Review that led me to resign as archbishop was partly ‘wrong', says Welby
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Mr Welby added that, in 2013, he only knew of one person alleging they had been abused by Smyth, and that he was in the midst of dealing with other prominent cases of sexual abuse within the Church. Mr Welby said: 'I was dealing at the time with Peter Ball, the bishop of Gloucester, where we knew there were at least 30 victims, and he was going to prison, obviously, and one of those victims had committed suicide. 'That was among many cases that were coming out, and they were obviously getting my attention. 'I was focusing my attention on making sure it didn't happen again. 'I don't apologise for that. 'The worst of all possible things would have been to say, we're not going to change the system sufficiently to reduce the chances of such appalling events with such lifelong damage to survivors happening again.' The former archbishop, however, acknowledged he was 'insufficiently persistent' in bringing Smyth to justice while he was still alive – which ultimately compelled him to step down from his role as archbishop of Canterbury. Mr Welby also said he was seeing a psychotherapist with whom he has been discussing the time of his resignation, which he described as 'one of the loneliest moments I've ever had'. Asked about what he would have done differently, Mr Welby replied: 'I have thought a great deal about that. 'One must be very careful about making it sound as though it was all about me. It's really not. 'There will be people here who've been abused, who are the victims of abuse, sexual abuse, or physical abuse, emotional abuse, and I've been very open that I'm one of them, so I'm aware of what it means. 'There were two reasons it was right to resign. 'One was, although I thought I had done at the time everything I should have done, I hadn't. 'It had been reported to the police, the first signs of the abuse … and it was reported to Cambridgeshire Police and then to Hampshire Police, where he (Smyth) lived at the time. 'But I was insufficiently persistent and curious to follow up and check and check and check that action was being taken. 'And I felt that that had re-traumatised the survivors.' Mr Welby added: 'The other point was shame, because in my role, it wasn't only the Smyth case (in) the whole time I've been in post as archbishop for 12 years. 'There were more and more cases (that) emerged, very few from the present day, but going right back to the 60s and the 70s – 50, 60 years. 'And I'm sure we have not uncovered all of them, and I'm sure it goes further back than that. 'And there's one area the psychotherapist I have been seeing has helped me understand better, is: one develops an idealisation of an organisation, particularly the Church, and the sense of its failure made me feel that the only proper thing to do was to take responsibility as the current head of that organisation. 'It's one of the loneliest moments I've ever had, the reverberations of that I still feel. 'But I can persuade myself I could have done other things. I could have taken on the interviewers more strongly.' The process to replace Mr Welby is under way. It is expected there could be an announcement on a nomination for the 106th archbishop of Canterbury by autumn – a year after Mr Welby announced he was standing down.
