A woman who was wrongfully thrown into Britain’s toughest women’s jail due to the Post Office scandal says she still has ‘nightmares about the ordeal’.
Tracy Felstead was 19 when a judge sent her maximum security facility HMP Holloway for ‘stealing’ £11,500 from Camberwell Green post office in South London where she worked in 1999 – her first job after leaving school.
The now 36-year-old is one of 557 former Post Office workers taking the company to the High Court to prove a computer glitch with the IT software – Horizon, by Fujitsu – was actual the reason behind money going missing in multiple branches.
The scandal is seen as one of the UK’s biggest miscarriages of justice and has gained recent national attention over recent days thanks to Mr Bates Vs The Post Office airing on ITV.
In 2019, Tracey told the she still suffers from nightmares after spending six months in prison for a crime she did not commit.
Tracy Felstead was 19 when a judge sent her maximum security facility HMP Holloway for ‘stealing’ £11,500 from Camberwell Green post office in South London where she worked in 1999– her first job after leaving school
The scandal is seen as one of the UK’s biggest miscarriages of justice and has gained recent national attention over recent days thanks to Mr Bates Vs The Post Office airing on ITV
Camberwell Green Post Office in south London, where Miss Felstead started working in 1999
Tracey, who was 17 when she started working at the post office, said: ‘They didn’t care that I was this scared girl.
‘They didn’t care that I’m sitting there in court, and I’m absolutely distraught, and my family are aghast. And I don’t think they realise overall what they’ve actually done.
‘Because still to this day I’m having flashbacks and nightmares, and I still can’t bear a door slamming because it takes me back to that prison door shutting, which is the most dreadful sound in the world.’
The ITV show, starring award-winning actor Toby Jones, highlights Alan Bates’ long fight against the Post Office on behalf of workers accused of stealing from their branches, with many jailed as common thieves or made bankrupt.
The programme has angered viewers who want to see justice served to the victims of the scandal.
Tracey, now a teaching assistant, hopes the four-part drama will give the public a greater understanding of what the wrongfully prosecuted subpostmasters and subpostmistresses went through.
Tracey told ITV’s This Morning: ‘I think because I was only 19 it was difficult. We lost family friends because they thought I had stolen this money.
‘It’s really hard to prove, when you don’t know what’s gone wrong and you are stood there in a court of law trying to explain what has happened and you can’t.
‘I wasn’t pleading guilt to something I hadn’t done. But I stood my ground, but when you are up against an establishment that is so big and you put your trust in the justice system, you think everything will be okay and it just wasn’t, you couldn’t defend yourself.’
In 1999, a fault with the Post Office’s IT system (Horizon, by Fujitsu) incorrectly reported cash shortfalls in branches across the country, leading to the scandal which affected Tracey and hundreds of her colleagues.
As of today, no Post Office executive nor Fujitsu employee has faced criminal investigation for their part in the fault.
Nick Read, shared a message via social media following Tuesday’s episode, saying: ‘We sincerely apologise to victims for the devastating impact of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal on the lives of so many.
‘We are all doing all we can to provide redress and urge anyone affected who has not yet come forward to do so.’
The now 36-year-old is one of 557 former Post Office workers now taking the company to the High Court to prove a computer glitch was actual the reason behind money going missing in multiple Post Office branches across the country
The ITV show, starring award-winning actor Toby Jones, highlights Alan Bates’ long fight against the Post Office on behalf of workers accused of stealing from their branches, with many jailed as common thieves or made bankrupt
In 2020, the Post Office admitted Tracey’s prosecution was an abuse of process.
The following year, the Court of Appeal ruled it was more than that. It was an affront to the entire justice system and should never have happened.
A public inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal at the Post Office is still ongoing and Tracey hopes someone will be held accountable for the many years of trauma she has faced.
She said: ”It’s about getting justice now and obviously the enquiry are doing that. Someone needs to be held accountable.’