I looked at bairns and thought, ‘God, I can’t leave them’
Horizon scandal postmistress on how close she came to suicide
A FORMER sub-postmistress has told how staring at pictures of her children stopped her from killing herself as her life fell apart amid the Horizon IT scandal.
Sharon Brown said she “nearly did something stupid” but pulled back from the brink when she saw photographs of her two sons.
She said: “If I hadn’t seen the pictures of the bairns, I wouldn’t be sitting with you now. I just looked at them and thought, ‘God, I can’t leave them bairns’.”
As the inquiry into the scandal continues today, Sharon revealed she fell into despair after she was falsely accused of stealing £36,000 from her Post Office in Pennywell, Sunderland.
Sharon, 63, said: “I came close to taking my own life, which is something I never thought I’d ever say.
“It was somewhere around 2013 or 2014, the exact dates of things have been wiped out by the stress of everything we have gone through.
“I just couldn’t sleep at that time so I was up during the night and things were running around in my head.
“It occurred to me that if I took my own life all the worries would go away, they would stop and as people thought I had made the errors then the family would be OK, it would end.
“I had been undergoing cancer treatment at the time and I got out the drugs I was taking, painkillers and other drugs, and walked into the conservatory with them. “I laid them out in front of me and was about to start taking them when my eyes fell on a picture of my boys and in that moment I changed my mind.
“I just thought ‘how can I think about leaving them behind?’ I couldn’t do it. I’m so glad those pictures were standing around our conservatory, it brought me to my senses.”
Sons Adam, 34, and Callum, 32, and husband Kevin, 63, discovered years later how close Sharon had been to taking her life. She said: “Now I’m lucky enough to be a grandmother. If I’d gone through with it I would never have known how great that feels.”
Sharon and her husband bought the business in 2006. When money began disappearing, like many caught up in the Horizon scandal, Sharon mistakenly assumed she had done something wrong. She said: ”I just couldn’t figure it out. I didn’t even consider that it was the computer. It didn’t enter my head.”
After her suspension in 2012 investigators searched her home.
Sharon was never prosecuted but the couple lost their business and are in debt after using their life savings to cover the shortfalls.
I thought if I took my own life all the worries would just go away
SHARON BROWN ON HORIZON IT SCANDAL
Husband Kevin said those responsible for the scandal should be jailed.
He said: “We’re still left without a penny to our name.
“We did everything we could think of to pay back the money they said we owed, we borrowed off family and took a large loan. For us this is still very real.”
Ex sub-postmaster Alan Bates, whose fight for justice became a TV drama, will give evidence at the inquiry in Central London today.
Mr Bates, who led a High Court case brought by 555 sub-postmasters, said police must consider prosecuting those responsible and bonuses paid to bosses should be returned.
He told the BBC: “People have got to be held accountable.”
Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake said yesterday that the culprits should be locked up. He said: “People should be prosecuted.”
Key figures will give evidence to the inquiry in the coming weeks including Paula Vennells, chief executive of the Post Office between 2012 and 2019.
The Commons Business Committee is considering sanctioning Ms Vennells for potentially misleading Parliament over what she knew about the scandal.
The Government has set up separate compensation schemes for subpostmasters affected.