A former sub-postmaster found guilty of bludgeoning his postmistress wife to death as she slept in North Yorkshire has applied to launch a fresh appeal against his murder conviction.
Robin Garbutt, formerly of York and Huby, was jailed for life in April 2011 and ordered to serve a minimum of 20 years behind bars for killing 40-year-old Diana Garbutt.
At his trial, jurors at Teesside Crown Court heard that he battered Diana, who grew up in Selby and Eggborough, to death in their bedroom before opening their post office and shop in the village of Melsonby.
Garbutt claimed he and his wife were a victim of an armed robbery but the prosecution’s case, which involved using evidence from the Horizon IT system and the Post Office, helped to convict him.
As The Press reported at the time, Garbutt, then 45, claimed a man with a gun had told him: "Don't do anything stupid - we've got your wife", but the jury rejected his story.
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The jury of eight men and four women convicted him on a ten-two majority, after almost 13 hours of deliberations.
Garbutt’s solicitor, Martin Rackstraw from the law firm Russell-Cooke, said: “We believe that fresh evidence and other important developments that have come to light since the original trial, now mean that Mr Garbutt’s conviction is not safe.”
Kevin Hollinrake, MP for Thirsk and Malton and former Post Office Minister, has written a letter of support for Garbutt.
"I can’t speculate whether Robin Garbutt is guilty or innocent, but I think we all want to make sure that people when they go through the justice system get a fair hearing," he said.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission has confirmed that lawyers on behalf of Garbutt have applied for his case to be sent back to the Court of Appeal.
He lost his last appeal in 2012 as three judges concluded his conviction was safe.
Garbutt had argued that it should be overturned on the grounds that that newly disclosed Post Office accounting records going back to 2004 supported the credibility of his evidence and undermined part of the prosecution case, but the judges disagreed.
Lord Justice Hughes said the accuracy of the newly discovered Post Office records was not disputed.
"The premise on which this appeal has so well been argued is that the jury may have proceeded from theft to murder,” the judge said. "We have asked ourselves anxiously whether that might be so. We are clear that it cannot be."
The judge concluded: "We are quite satisfied that this conviction is not unsafe.”
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