Elderly Post Office Victim Fears Dying Before CCRC Post Office Capture Case Clears Name

By Ben Kerrigan-

A victim of the Post Office’s faulty Capture computer system says agonizing delays in the justice system have left him fearing he may never live to see his name cleared.

Steve Marston was wrongly convicted in 1998 of stealing nearly £80,000 from his branch; this conviction was based on faulty computer software called Capture, which actually predates the infamous Horizon scandal. His case has been under review by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) for almost a year, yet it has still not been formally referred to the Court of Appeal.

Mr Marston, who turns 70 in February, openly shared his distress with Sky News, describing the waiting period as “just unbearable.” He sadly estimated that the chances of all the victims living to see “the endgame” are “quite slim, to be honest.”

He desperately hopes his CCRC Post Office Capture case will be resolved while he is still alive. “The last thing I want to do is to not be here when it’s sorted out,” he said, noting the anxiety is “soul destroying.” Every day involves thinking and talking about the conviction, creating a “permanent knot in the stomach,” making sleeping extremely difficult. The ongoing uncertainty for this cohort of elderly victims is causing immense stress.

Lawyer Neil Hudgell, who represents the victims, warns there is “no end in sight” for Post Office Capture victims convicted three decades ago, asserting that timelines at the CCRC “keep getting shifted backwards.” He forcefully argues for a “special resolution” for Capture cases to drastically “shorten the process.”

Mr. Hudgell believes these circumstances, involving a cohort of very elderly people with convictions hanging over them for thirty years, necessitate exceptional treatment. He suggested extending the government’s mass exoneration legislation—currently limited to Horizon victims—could offer an expeditious fix. “You’re talking about a fraction of the number of people,” he said, maintaining this move needs only political will.

The CCRC did recently announce in July that the case of the late sub-postmistress Pat Owen, who was also convicted in 1998, would be referred. Her case was formally sent to the Court of Appeal on Thursday, three months after the CCRC made the initial decision to refer. The decision to refer Owen’s case followed a Sky News investigation that uncovered a long-lost, damning report proving Post Office lawyers knew about the Capture errors.

 

Dame Vera Baird, Chair of the CCRC, is currently tasked with conducting a “thorough review” of the organisation. She told Sky News that Capture cases are being given “what priority we can give them,” acknowledging the main issue is a “real dearth of information” since much of the original paperwork is unavailable. Despite this, she noted staff will “dig and dig and dig to find what we can,” with a special group of case review managers dedicated to these pre-Horizon convictions.

Dame Vera also confirmed the CCRC is “pretty short-staffed” but is actively recruiting, with workers currently managing around “30 or more” cases each. She emphasized their commitment to acceleration, saying the CCRC had put in a special request to “accelerate” the Owen case through the Court of Appeal. “Once we’ve referred,” she explained, “we do ask, where there is somebody who’s not very well perhaps or somebody who is older, we try to accelerate it and the Court of Appeals is good they will accelerate it on our request almost always.”

A Post Office spokesperson said they continue to “fully co-operate with the CCRC by supplying documents and information” where possible. The ongoing wait for justice in the CCRC Post Office Capture case remains a source of deep anxiety for victims like Mr. Marston.

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• Date
  17th October 2025

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