The family of a sub-postmistress “shunned in the street” after being convicted of stealing thousands from the branch she ran have been reunited with a key witness in the bid to clear her name.
Pat Owen was found guilty of theft from the Broad Oak Post Office in Sturry, near Canterbury, in 1998, despite denying any involvement in a £6,000 shortfall in its accounts.
She narrowly avoided a prison sentence, but her family say she became a shell of herself and rarely left the house before her death from heart failure five years later, aged 62.
However, they have now been reunited with a key witness who can help exonerate Mrs Owen – after they spent 27 years thinking she had been abandoned in her hour of need.
Earlier this year, KentOnline revealed how computer expert Adrian Montagu was due to give evidence in Mrs Owen's defence at court as part of her trial, but failed to turn up on the day.
The family never found out why until May, when they learned from Mr Montagu that Mrs Owen’s barristers had told him he wasn’t needed - behind everyone’s backs.
Juliet Shardlow, Pat’s daughter, told KentOnline the barrister claimed he could not remember the case, but expressed concern the Post Office’s reputation may have interfered with the course of justice.
“Back in those days, you went to the Post Office for everything, they took over the world, and it was like what Google is now,” she said.
“Adrian had put together an IT report which did prove my mum’s innocence, but at no point did the court see Adrian or his evidence.
“We don’t know why Mum’s barrister did this.
“She was told she was the only one, and that there wasn’t anyone else having issues with Capture.”
The report, which was likely never seen in court after Mr Montagu was sent away as he sat waiting in Canterbury Crown Court, described Capture as "an accident waiting to happen".
It meant "reasonable doubt exists as to whether any criminal offence has taken place".
It also states the software "is quite capable of producing absurd gibberish" and describes "several insidious faults…which would not be necessarily apparent to the user".
All of which produced "arithmetical or accounting errors".
Mrs Owen’s case is one of a new wave of claims relating to the computing software, which was used in Post Office branches in the 1990s before the similarly faulty Horizon system was introduced.
Hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly accused and convicted of stealing after Horizon software caused false shortfalls in branch accounts between 1999 and 2015.
A report last year revealed there was also a reasonable likelihood the Capture accounting system, ditched in 1999, caused similar situations.
Now, they are determined to ensure Pat Owen’s name is no longer tainted by a crime they say she was innocent of.
Mrs Shardlow said: “We don’t know what happens next, we’re trying to force the Government to take notice.
“I don’t want to have to go on for years, I have to get Mum’s name cleared now.”
Before the case, Mrs Owen was “a force to be reckoned with” and “a real go-getter”.
But after being accused of stealing from her beloved workplace, Mrs Shardlow said her beloved mum “was a shadow of herself” and became very poorly as she shed weight from stress.
She told KentOnline: “She used to be able to play the piano by ear, and loved spending time with her grandson.
“She went from that to not being able to go out the door, not going anywhere with my dad – she wasn't the same woman any more.”
The conviction and subsequent struggles in Mrs Owen’s life became an unspoken secret, with Mrs Shardlow describing it as “a black mark on the family”.
The family kept what happened to themselves, with Juliet not even telling her husband or children until the scandal was exposed in the TV drama Mr Bates v The Post Office in January last year.
The government announced in December it will be setting up a redress scheme for Capture victims, similar to Horizon.
If the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) finds significant new evidence or legal arguments not previously heard before, cases can be referred back to the Court of Appeal.
More than 100 people who suffered after being accused of stealing from their branch while using Capture could be eligible for redress.