Robin Garbutt is either a cold-blooded murderer, rightfully languishing in prison for beating his wife to death and then faking a robbery at the Post Office to cover it up.
Or he is the victim of the greatest miscarriage of justice ever committed by the Post Office’s flawed Horizon IT system.
Garbutt, 57, has spent the last 12 years in prison after being found guilty of murdering his wife Diana, 40, in 2011 at their home above the Post Office they ran together in the picturesque village of Melsonby, North Yorkshire.
He protests his innocence and claims the Post Office produced evidence against him that showed he stole money to fund a lavish lifestyle, using the Horizon IT system.
Garbutt’s supporters claim that if the Horizon evidence is not analyzed by the Post Office, much of the motive for the murder and the manner in which it was committed will also disappear.
Garbutt took his case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) three times for a retrial.
They contacted him three times, most recently in November last year when the CCRC concluded that “the figures from the Horizon system were not necessary to convict him of murder”.
But ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office has lit a new fire under the Horizon scandal, giving Garbutt, his lawyers and supporters renewed hope that his conviction could still be overturned.
The Crown case (Sir Keir Starmer was director of public prosecutions at the time, and the village was in Rishi Sunak’s constituency) was that Garbutt murdered his wife, a postmistress, in March 2010 over suspicions and fears that she was having an affair. He was about to be exposed for stealing thousands of pounds of Post Office money.
Post Office inspectors who were understood to have been involved in the unsafe convictions of assistant postmasters for fraud and theft gave evidence against Garbutt.
In his summing up to the jury at the time, Mr Justice Openshaw said: “The prosecution’s case is that money was stolen from the post office and the theft was concealed by a series of misrepresentations as to the amount. There’s money in the safe.”
Appeal documents seen by The Telegraph show Horizon data was used to show a “pattern of fraud”.
Garbutt’s claim that he was robbed at gunpoint and his wife was beaten to death by a second assailant was rejected by a 10-2 majority by the jury.
‘The evidence that led to the conviction is no longer reliable’
But legal academic Dr. from the University of Bristol, who runs the CCRC Watch campaign website and reviewed the case, said: Michael Naughton said: “The prosecution used Horizon evidence to support their claim that the motive for the murder was that Robin Garbutt had stolen money. He was on the Post Office side of things and needed to kill his wife to cover it up.”
“Horizon was used to show that he was defrauding the Post Office. “I don’t know whether Robin Garbutt murdered his wife, but I do know that the evidence that led to his conviction is now unreliable and has been discredited across the board.”
Mark Stilborn, Garbutt’s brother-in-law, said on Friday: “The prosecution said there was a deficiency that led him to organize the robbery. They said Diana made the calculations and found out about it, so she killed him.
But in light of the Horizon scandal, he said, the statements given by Post Office investigators may never have been presented to the jury, or at least they might have been questioned vigorously, ruling out the underlying motive for the murder.
“I’m 100 percent sure Robin is innocent,” Mr. Stilborn said. “Anyone who knows Robin knows he is innocent. Robin is the nicest person you will ever meet.”
Author Edward Abel Smith, who wrote a book about the case, said: “They used Horizon data to create a picture that shows Robin has been stealing from the Post Office for some time and is now using the robbery to cover up the missing money.”
Campaigners point out that there is no forensic evidence linking Garbutt to the murder weapon – an iron bar that police found in a nearby wall two days after the murder. Evidence regarding time of death is also hotly debated.
The prosecution argued that Diana was killed during the robbery at midnight rather than 8.30am, and that her husband then opened the Post Office as normal and served dozens of customers. But the coroner’s report giving the time of death is now hotly disputed, and not a single customer served that morning noticed anything odd about his behavior.
Garbutt is in prison for now and still protests his innocence. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and a minimum of 20 years in prison. “He delivered three savage blows, shattering her skull and causing her instant death, as he clearly intended,” the trial judge said, adding: “This was a brutal, planned, cold-blooded murder in which his wife was murdered while she slept in bed.”
Outside court, Diana’s mother, Agnes Gaylor, refused to speak about her son-in-law. “I’m not thinking about Robin right now. After today, I won’t let Robin into my mind,” she said.
A statement from the CCRC published in November 2022 regarding its refusal to refer the case said: “Much of Mr Garbutt’s appeal to the CCRC focused on the Post Office Horizon scandal, which led to the overturning of several fraud and theft convictions of former Post Office employees, many of whom were dismissed by the CCRC.” after being directed to do so. The CCRC decided that this argument could not assist Mr Garbutt as the figures in the Horizon system were not necessary to convict him of murder.”
But the CCRC itself is also under fire. While appeals against the convictions of hundreds of deputy postmasters who were wrongly prosecuted by the Post Office have been slow to process, the case of Andy Malkinson, wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for rape, prompted the Government to launch an investigation into its handling. by the police, CPS and CCRC.
During the summer Garbutt wrote an open letter to the chairman of the CCRC from his current home at HM Prison Wealstun. “The scene of horror when he discovered his wife’s bloodied body will live with me forever,” he wrote, adding: “By not taking my case to the Court of Appeals you are failing myself, my poor wife and the safety of others. There is a murderer out there. And that won’t change as long as I remain detained in prison.” .”
He may or may not have been a victim of the Horizon scandal, but campaigners say only a retrial can get to the truth.