Campaigners point out that no forensic evidence links Garbutt to the murder weapon – an iron bar that was found by police on a wall nearby two days after the killing. Evidence over the time of death is also hotly disputed.
The prosecution alleged Diana was killed in the middle of the night – rather than at 8.30am at the time of the robbery – and that her husband then opened the Post Office as normal and served dozens of customers. But the forensics report giving the time of death is now hotly disputed while not a single customer served that morning noticed anything strange about his demeanour.
For now, Garbutt remains in jail, still protesting his innocence. He was sentenced to life and ordered to serve a minimum of 20 years in jail. “He struck three savage blows, smashing her skull and causing her immediate death as clearly he intended,” said the trial judge, adding: “This was a brutal, planned, cold-blooded murder of his wife as she lay sleeping in bed.”
Outside court, Agnes Gaylor, Diana’s mother, declined to discuss her son-in-law. “I am not thinking about Robin now. I’m not going to let Robin enter my head after today,” she said at the time.
A CCRC statement issued in November 2022 on its refusal to refer the case said: “Much of Mr Garbutt’s application to the CCRC focused on the Post Office Horizon scandal, which has led to several fraud and theft convictions of former Post Office workers being overturned, many after referral by the CCRC. The CCRC decided that this argument could not assist Mr Garbutt, as figures from the Horizon system were not essential to his conviction for murder.”
But the CCRC is itself under fire. It has been slow to process appeals against convictions by the hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly prosecuted by the Post Office, while the case of Andy Malkinson, wrongly convicted and jailed for rape, prompted the Government to launch an inquiry into the handling of his case by the police, the CPS and the CCRC.
In the summer, Garbutt wrote an open letter to the chairman of the CCRC from his current home in HM Prison Wealstun. “The horror scene” on finding his wife’s bloodied body “will live with me forever”, he wrote, adding: “By failing to progress my case to the Court of Appeal you are failing myself, my poor wife and the safety of others as there is a murderer at large. And, whilst I am detained in prison, that will not change.”
He may or may not be a victim of the Horizon scandal but campaigners say only a retrial will get to the truth.
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
