Victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal have dismissed a planned exhibition on the affair at the Postal Museum as a PR stunt that they are refusing to endorse.
The inquiry into the wrongful convictions of hundreds of post office operators announced in September that it was working with the Postal Museum as part of a legacy project to commemorate the devastating impact of the scandal.
But many victims, who have been advising the inquiry’s legacy project, are highly suspicious of the idea of an exhibition.
Katie Burrows, daughter of Elaine Hood, a Derby post office operator who was wrongly convicted of theft in 2002, said she had been “deeply traumatised” by a meeting at the museum to discuss the idea. She said: “I felt a bit coerced. It was set up as a PR stunt. I don’t want to endorse something that I just don’t think is right.”
Burrows and others are troubled that the museum is part-funded by the Post Office.
Nichola Arch, a former post office operator who was wrongly accused of stealing £26,000 from the Post Office, also attended the meeting. She said: “While they’re taking money from the Post Office, they won’t win our trust, and nothing the museum will do will change that.”
Alistdair Brown, whose 92-year-old mother, Betty, is the oldest wrongly convicted post office operator, said: “The general reaction from subpostmasters was that they never want to be seen in the place as its far too close to the Post Office headquarters at Mount Pleasant. It’s almost like walking back into some kind of prison again.”
An inquiry spokesperson said the idea of working with the museum came from discussions with a focus group of post office operators, as one aspect of its legacy project.
They said: “We appreciate that discussing the devastating impact of the scandal can be difficult for people, and we are grateful to everyone who has engaged and shared their views. We look forward to continuing to work with them on this and other aspects of the project.”
Laura Wright, chief executive of the Postal Museum, said: “It is vitally important that those impacted by the scandal are able to tell their stories in their own way and have them preserved for the future. It is our aim to partner with those affected, with care and over time, to recognise and honour their experiences in ways that are led by their wishes.
“Not all will want to continue to be involved, and there will be others not part of the original focus group who will also want to share their stories. Building trust will take time.”
Burrows, who set up the Lost Chances charity to support the families and dependents affected by the faulty Horizon IT system, said attending the museum to discuss a possible exhibition “felt like betraying people”.
After the museum meeting she said her charity’s lawyer had informed the inquiry she would not support working with the museum.
Burrows said: “I thought it was going to be meeting about sharing ideas, as we had done before. But it was all set up as though it had already been agreed, which it hadn’t. And it was being filmed. There have been loads of ideas about how to mark the legacy, and never once has the Postal Museum been suggested.”
Brown said: “None of the subpostmaster representatives have called for this. It was something that came directly from the inquiry.”
Burrows said she had had an “anxiety attack” in the museum and was “triggered” by the Post Office-themed toys on sale in the shop. She said: “I was 13 when my mum was convicted. Seeing all the Post Office memorabilia really bought it back to me. I used to love Postman Pat because I was really proud that my mum worked for the Post Office. But all that was suddenly taken away from me as a child.
“How can a museum set up to celebrate the Post Office properly represent something that put hundreds of families in such a horrible situation?”
Tracey Merritt, a former post office operator in Wincanton who has been forced to work two jobs to pay for debts resulting from the scandal, said she was upset that there was currently no mention of post office operators in the museum. “I said: ‘It’s taken us being treated so badly for you to actually consider putting us in a museum’. You can’t celebrate a company and then show what they’ve done to us in the same light.”