Horizon’s last victim? Postmistress’ family hit out after son’s suicide
THE family of a man whose postmistress mother was caught up in the Horizon scandal yesterday accused Post Office chiefs of having ‘blood on their hands’ over his suicide.
Bradley Peace, 27, led an idyllic childhood in a small village where his mother, Beverley Dinsdale, ran the local post office and village shop.
But the family began a ‘tumultuous’ journey when he was four after Mrs Dinsdale was wrongly accused of pocketing up to £60,000 because of the faulty IT system, an inquest heard.
They had to quit their beautiful rented Victorian home in the Suffolk village of Somerleyton, which was set on an acre of land and had stables and horses.
They moved to a rundown area of Great Yarmouth where they struggled financially.
The upheaval led to Mrs Dinsdale being declared bankrupt, having to sell another house she had bought and developing mental health problems. Her marriage to Bradley’s father, Ken Peace, also collapsed.
Bradley ended up self-medicating with drink and drugs before taking his own life last year. His brother Michael Grapes, 37, told the Mail: ‘He went from being a sweet little child, very bubbly and happy, to being very withdrawn. It was such a shock to him. [The Post Office] definitely have blood on their hands.’
Senior Norfolk coroner Nigel Parsley recorded a narrative verdict on Wednesday, saying: ‘Bradley’s [substance abuse] relates back to things that happened when he was a child and into young adulthood.’
Mr Grapes had told the hearing in Ipswich: ‘The direction of his life took a turn for the worse at the age of four when our mother lost the post office and family home due to the Horizon scandal.’
Mrs Dinsdale, a mother of six, was not prosecuted after paying back the money but had still not received compensation when she died from cancer aged 60 last March. The Post Office was contacted for a comment.
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