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Experts and campaigners claim “flawed” financial evidence was key at 2011 trial of Robin Garbutt due to the Royal Mail’s discredited Horizon computer system.
A postmaster jailed for life for killing his wife has begged for a retrial based on the new evidence in the case.
Robin Garbutt, 60, has been described as ‘the most egregious victim of the Post Office scandal’. Experts and campaigners claim “flawed” financial evidence was used against him at his 2011 trial as a result of the Royal Mail’s discredited Horizon computer system.
He was found guilty of murdering his wife Diana, 40, at the post office they ran in Melsonby, N. Yorks. But his case has been referred to the independent body which investigates miscarriages of justice.
The Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC) has the power to order a retrial if there is significant new evidence ‘or another major new issue affects the safety of conviction or sentence’.
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Held in category C prison Wealstun near Wetherby, N. Yorks., he said of the case against him: “How could they have ignored the evidence? No DNA on the murder weapon. The photograph of the clump of hair (at the murder scene), lost by police.
“There is no (forensic) evidence linking me to the murder.” None of Robin Garbutt’s DNA was found on the murder weapon, an iron bar found on a wall near the post office two days after her murder.
His trial heard that the DNA of a police officer who found the weapon was on one end of the bar, and Diana’s on the other.
Garbutt said in evidence: “I loved my wife.” When the prosecution suggested that she no longer loved him, after evidence of her profile emerged on an online dating site, he added: “I think you are wrong. I think she loved me back.”
A former detective, who viewed a new three-part documentary on the latest evidence in the case for the Mirror, said: “All of the findings in the documentary show that Robin Garbutt deserves a retrial in my view.”
Garbutt himself gives his views in the last of three parts of the Sky documentary, ‘Murder at the Post Office’.
The CCRC confirmed that the application for a review of his conviction was being pursued by a newly appointed case review manager who is “leaving no stone unturned in exploring whether Mr Garbutt may have suffered a miscarriage of justice”.
Dr Michael Naughton, a reader in sociology and law at Bristol University and a director of campaign group ‘Empowering the Innocent’, believes there should be a retrial.
He told the Mirror: “We have to see this in the context of 1.6m criminal cases a year in England and Wales since Robin Garbutt was found guilty.
“He is now one of the most high profile cases in Britain. There have been around 22m convictions since he came to court.
“There are not that many cases where people may be innocent in comparison. They need to speed up the process of dealing so it does not take years to deal with their applications.”
Dr Naughton said that one of the problems is that a new expert is appointed to look at each application. Garbutt has made four applications for leave to appeal.
Using an expert who previously dealt with his case would save valuable time, according to Dr Naughton. Garbutt remains adamant that Diana was killed by a robber.
The Horizon scandal cast fresh doubt on financial records used to suggest Garbutt had his hand in the post office till. His financial situation was key to the prosecution case as he was found guilty of bludgeoning his wife to death with a metal bar.
A judge said that he called 999, having faked the armed robbery. In another twist, a clump of hair seen in a North Yorkshire Police scene of crime photo was ‘lost’ during the investigation.
Robin’s supporters believe it could mean that Diana put up a fight and the hair, which did not match Robin’s, may have been pulled from the head of her killer during a struggle in the bedroom. Forensic analysis suggested that she was struck on the head by a blunt instrument from behind, while she was asleep. Dr Naughton warned the Garbutt case ‘may be the most egregious miscarriage of justice stemming from the post office scandal’. He added: “The evidence that led to the conviction has been discredited.”
Diana’s mother Agnes Gaylor, 75, who made a public appeal for information three days after her daughter’s murder, has warned that Garbutt is ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ of the Horizon scandal in a bid to be freed.
Supporters say that he is instead determined to find the real killers. A post office customer told of hearing a woman’s voice upstairs when he went into the shop at 6.45 am on the day of the murder, and Robin replying to her ‘Yes Di’ or ‘Yes darling’.
If that was Diana, then the evidence of transactions in the shop between then and 8.30 am confirm that he would not have had time to carry out the murder.
North Yorkshire Police have said they had nothing to add to the facts which had been set out during court proceedings, which ‘resulted in Robin Garbutt being sentenced to life’.
A CCRC spokesperson said: “Mr Garbutt has applied for a further review of his conviction, and it is currently being actively pursued by our staff.
“A Case Review Manager is exploring any possibilities the application raises with a view to leaving no stone unturned in the quest to find whether Mr Garbutt may have suffered a miscarriage of justice.“Our test for referring a case is that there is a real possibility that the Court of Appeal would overturn his conviction, a test which was NOT met in any of the earlier applications.”
* Murder at the Post Office is on Sky and streaming service NOW.
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