The family of a sub-postmaster have described how their father's life was "destroyed" by the Horizon Post Office scandal.
Jonathan Armstrong was a sub-postmaster at the Post Office in Windmill Drive, Bexhill, and was among thousands of people to be wrongly accused of stealing from the company.
Mr Armstrong was suspended and was unable to return to work after his mental health deteriorated.
Following ITV docu-drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, public attention turned to the scandal - which turned out to have been caused by the faulty Horizon IT and accounting system.
Mr Armstrong died suddenly in October 2025 of a heart attack, which his family say the Post Office caused.
His daughter, Rebecca Armstrong, described the devastating impact the ordeal had on her father and their family.
The 34-year-old recounted an occasion where she convinced her father not to take his own life, causing her to quit university in order to help support her mother, Sarah.
She said: “I put dad’s death down last year down to the impact the Post Office had on his and our lives for more than a decade.
“Had he not been put through all he was; I’m sure he’d still be here now. That breaks my heart, and really angers me, and it is why I will never stop fighting for justice and the compensation we all deserve.
“When my mum called me to say he had died last October I collapsed and cried like I have never cried before. My heart was broken and I don’t think it can ever be whole again.
“That phone call took me straight back to when my mum phoned me in 2014.
“That day changed our lives forever, and since then, nothing was ever the same again. My proud, honourable father was reduced to a shell of the man he had previously been.
“He had worked so hard at that Post Office and loved serving the community. He and my mum won awards, but when it started going wrong, he became obsessed.
“He was a chartered accountant and he couldn’t understand why the shortfalls were happening. I can remember him coming home looking completely shattered on Wednesday nights as he had been trying to balance the books.
“It caused tension between mum and dad, as I think she suspected him to be taking the money, and he got to the point where he installed CCTV to check on the staff.
“He was tormented by it and would sit watching the CCTV footage for hours checking every transaction. It drove him crazy – and ultimately to almost ending his life.”
Mr Armstrong was among other sub-postmasters from Sussex who were caught up in the scandal.
Mr Sabet had owned three post offices in Shoreham and Brighton and received a 12-month suspended prison sentence in 2009. This was eventually overturned at the Court of Appeal in 2021.
The couple recently featured in a BBC One documentary speaking with victims of the scandal.
Mr Armstrong’s daughter, Rebecca, described the impact the scandal also had on herself – having suffering with PTSD, alcoholism, self-harm and depression due to what her father had been through.
Mr Armstrong was suspended and on the day auditors turned up he attempted to take his own life. He was sectioned and spent nearly a month in hospital, followed by six weeks in a supervised residence.
The family sold the business at a loss and moved to Brockworth, Gloucestershire.
Rebecca said: “At the time, when dad was suspended, the way we were treated by the community in Bexhill-on-Sea was awful,” she recalled.
“We were told that mum had to take over the Post Office as if she didn’t dad would be prosecuted and go to prison if the alleged debt wasn’t repaid.
“Me and my mum tried to pick up the pieces and carry on, but people were really nasty towards us and we had bricks thrown through the windows. We tried to shield dad from what was happening as he was so fragile at the time.
“It caused family friction. Even my partner at the time, who I’d been with for nine years, thought dad had done wrong and believed him to be a coward who couldn’t face the consequences of his actions. It led to that relationship breaking down.”
When news of the scandal began to be exposed, Rebecca said her father was determined to secure financial redress.
Mr Armstrong was offered a settlement of just under a third of what he claimed for and the case was transferred, however he died with only an interim payment received.
The father was also denied the opportunity to walk his daughter down the aisle, having helped her and her fiancé Brandon, 37, make their plans just a month before he passed away.
She said: “They say there are different stages of grief, but not for me. I’ve only ever had one stage and that’s anger, anger which is directly at the Post Office for doing what it did to our lives.
“My dad had years of his life ruined, and he was only 58 when he died and had so much more to live for, and so much more to prove.
“I can’t bear the thought of even having children without him being here.
“Dad was consumed by the fight for justice before he died and we now need to see this through until the end. I need to now take on that fight for my dad and to help my mum. At present we can’t see the end, and that’s not fair.”
A newly proposed Horizon Family Members Redress Scheme looks to compensate parents, siblings and children who were living with a sub-postmaster at the time of the scandal.
Ms Armstrong says her family deserve compensation which “reflects how the Post Office destroyed their lives”.
The charity Lost Chances, which has campaigned for recognition and redress for children of sub-postmasters for the past two years, wrote to Prime Minister Andy Burnham urging him to ensure it offers fair settlements to all affected, in a way which prevents people reliving “deeply traumatic experiences”.
Specialist law firm Hudgell Solicitors has represented more than 1,000 sub-postmasters affected by the scandal, and is now advising hundreds of relatives with regards to making claims to the new scheme.
Solicitor Neil Hudgell said: “The focus now is on ensuring this scheme is drawn as widely as it can be to capture as many genuine victims of this appalling scandal as possible, and also to establish a process which can result in full and fair compensation for all affected, in the speediest manner.
“We’ve seen plenty of issues in other schemes which must be avoided here.
“In Jonathan’s case, they have waited years, endured a torturous process and still don’t have closure. Offers have increased significantly, but are still not enough.
“People don’t want to be forced to relive nightmares, they just want the justice they deserve.”
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A restorative justice programme is available for those harmed during the Post Office scandal. It is jointly funded by the Post Office, Fujitsu, which created the Horizon computer programme, and the Department for Business and Trade, .
It is a free and voluntary process which is separate to financial redress and seeks to address the emotional impact of the scandal to facilitate healing and accountability.
A spokeswoman for the Post Office said: “We would like to make a clear and unequivocal apology to every single person affected by this scandal. The Horizon Scandal is not one event. Lots of people made choices over two decades which caused serious harm to so many people.
"Post Office did not listen to postmasters like Mr Armstrong and, as an organisation, we let them down. Today, more than £1.67 billion has been paid in financial redress and we are taking part in a restorative justice programme to facilitate healing for those harmed.”
A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade said: “The Horizon scandal caused immeasurable harm - not just to the postmasters wrongly accused of crimes, but to their families who stood beside and suffered alongside them.
“The Horizon Family Members Redress Scheme recognises that harm and will make sure the most severely affected families receive the support they deserve, as quickly and simply as possible.
“We have listened carefully to those affected and designed this scheme to reach as many people as we can without putting unnecessary barriers in their way.”
For confidential support, Samaritans can be contacted for free around the clock 365 days a year on 116 123.
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