Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To explore the psychopathology of the victims of the UK Post Office scandal and the extent to which this can be adequately described by current classification of traumatic stress symptoms. DESIGN: Standard clinical interviews for the purposes of preparing medico-legal reports. SETTING: Face to face and virtual interviews. PARTICIPANTS: Victims of the Post Office Scandal, postmaster's and postmistress's wrongly accused of theft. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ICD-10 diagnostic criteria. RESULTS: All the subjects had experienced life changing traumatic reactions which were inadequately captured by current diagnostic criteria. CONCLUSIONS: The current taxonomy of trauma fails to capture the diversity of symptoms experienced by the postmasters and we argue that a formulation based approach should be employed, especially in the court room. There remains inadequate research exploring the impact of wrongful conviction on the mental state of victims.