Horizon scandal victim dies before full compensation, inquest reveals

Lynette Hutchings, 67, whose false accounting conviction was quashed, died last February.

After the 2021 Appeal Court verdict, the mother of two suffered a number of falls and eventually died from a lung infection, Portsmouth Coroner’s Court heard yesterday.

Former teacher Ms Hutchings was targeted for alleged shortcomings at two post offices she ran in Crookham, near Fleet, Hampshire, in 2002, then at Rowland’s Castle, East Hants, in 2006.

In a witness statement for the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry in 2022, she said she was in such a “dark place” she considered suicide.

Her husband Stephen, also an ex-teacher, told the inquest: “She was a caring person who thought of others before herself.”

Saying he would not go into the “whole history” of the Post Office ordeal, he revealed the couple ended up out of pocket and could not return to their former profession.

Recording a verdict of accidental death due to Ms Hutchings falling and hitting her head in December 2022, coroner Jason Pegg offered “sincere condolences” to Stephen and his daughter Amy for their loss of a wife and mother.