Sky is to air a new 3-part true crime documentary, reexamining the murder of Yorkshire postmistress, Diana Garbutt.
Produced by Lightbox, Murder at the Post Office, is centred around the village of Melsonby in North Yorkshire.
In 2010, Diana Garbutt was found murdered in the post office she ran with her husband, Robin. He claimed she’d been the victim of a violent intruder, but as detectives probed further, suspicion began to fall on him.
Prosecutors claimed that “behind the façade of a happy marriage lay deep marital and financial turmoil and £16,000 missing from the safe.”
They said that when his wife confronted him over the missing money, he killed her.
In 2011, he was sentenced to life in prison.
Robin Garbutt has maintained his innocence and has unsuccessfully appealed his conviction 3 times.
However, one of the central parts of the prosecution came from the Horizon system – the technology at the centre of the Post Office scandal. As a result, he’s seeking to appeal again.
READ MORE – Post Office comms failure published personal details of 500 Horizon claimants for months
“Producing Murder at the Post Office for Sky Documentaries, we were always mindful that at the heart of this story is the tragic loss of Diana Garbutt,” explained Suzanne Lavery, Creative Director, Lightbox.
“Our aim was to approach her case with care while examining the questions that remain. With her husband’s conviction shaped in part by the now-discredited Horizon system, it felt essential to look again at what happened and whether justice was truly served.”
The documentary is directed by Louise Malkinson and looks at both sides of the case.
“Murder at the Post Office is a forensic piece of storytelling that examines the evidence, investigation, and unanswered questions still debated around the murder of Diana Garbutt,” said Hayley Reynolds, Head of Documentary Commissioning at Sky.
“By sensitively drawing on a range of perspectives, it asks confronting questions about whether justice has been served.”
Murder at the Post Office will air on Sky and streaming service NOW on 29 December.
