Honour tops off a Christmas Betty will never forget

COUNTY Durham pensioner thought to be the oldest victim of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal says she will wear her OBE in honour of the other victims.

- DANIEL HALL, NICOLE GOODWIN AND OWEN YOUNGER

Betty Brown, 92, ran the Annfield Plain Post Office with her late husband Oswall from 1985 to 2003.

She estimates that they lost around £100,000 of their own money to cover the nonexistent shortfalls. Ms Brown, from Consett, has been made an OBE, becoming the latest victim to be honoured for services to justice after campaigning for subpostmasters.

She was one of the original victims who took part in group legal action against the Post Office led by Sir Alan Bates. She said this Christmas was the first in 26 years she could relax with “no worries; having received her settlement from one of the Government’s compensation schemes.

Speaking about the OBE, she said: “I’m honoured... I’m just not able to handle it. I’m just an ordinary, hardworking person... it’s just not something that you ever think about and I think of all the subpostmasters, all the 900, the 13 that committed suicide.

“It's on behalf of them and what they have gone through and what I've gone through, and I feel everything that they feel. I will wear it in honour of them, I’m very, very honoured but it's for the subpostmasters... what this really stands for is important.

“You just fight for what you're entitled to, for justice.”