Seven bombshells from Post Office inquiry as crying Paula Vennells offers names

Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells has broken her almost decade-long silence on the Horizon scandal as she was quizzed over the course of three days, often prompting groans from the gallery.

The 65-year-old broke down a number of times under questioning while giving evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT scandal inquiry. During a tearful episode at Aldwych House in central London, Ms Vennells admitted she had let subpostmasters down, but claimed her “only motivation was for the best for the Post Office and for the hundreds of postmasters that I met.”

She denied leading the Post Office through “deception” and “manipulation”, as she told the probe: “I was trying to address a culture in the organisation which I had found to be command and control, where people couldn’t speak their minds and they couldn’t speak up. I was trying to encourage people to work in that way. I did not deal in deception.”

Here are the biggest bombshells from the at times chaotic inquiry.

Vennells killed review that would have exposed scandal

During the inquiry, it emerged that Vennells killed a review that would have exposed the Horizon IT scandal more than 10 years ago after being told it would make “front page news” – but she insisted she was not part of a cover-up.

Vennells, who led the Post Office for nine years, said a different decision could have avoided a “lost decade” for persecuted branch operators. In an email revealed at the inquiry on Thursday, ex-Post Office media chief Mark Davies told Vennells that the review would “fuel the story and turn it into something bigger than it is.”

At the time, the former boss said she took her PR adviser’s “steer” but admitted going on with the review could have avoided so many years of miscarriage of justice. At the inquiry, Vennells was grilled about a report by forensic accountants Second Sight – published on 8 July, 2013 – which flagged up bugs in the Horizon IT system.

In an email to colleagues prior to the report’s publication, Ms Vennells made suggestions to address concerns of campaigners including Alan Bates and Lord Arbuthnot about the safety of previous Horizon convictions, including reviewing all convictions for false accounting stretching back up to 10 years “in the light of the Second Sight findings.”

Mr Davis said: “If we say publicly that we will look at past cases… we will open this up very significantly into front page news. In media terms it becomes mainstream, very high profile.” Ms Vennells responded: “You were right to call this out, and I will take your steer, no issue.”

Vennells names ‘people who let her down’

At the inquiry, Vennells named five senior Post Office staff who had “let her down” by withholding information as the scandal with the Fujitsu-supplied accounting computer system developed. She listed senior IT executives Mike Young (who the inquiry has not been able to locate), and Lesley Sewell, and the general legal counsels Susan Crichton, Chris Aujard and Jane MacLeod.

Audience groans as Vennells ‘can’t remember’

The chairman of the inquiry had to intervene in proceedings after the public gallery groaned when Ms Vennells said she did not remember if she took the “advice of the PR guy” not to review five-10 years’ worth of past prosecutions. Responding to an email from the former Post Office communications director, Mark Davies, in which he advised not to look at historical Horizon cases because it would end up on the front page, Ms Vennells said: “You are right to call this out. I will take your steer.”

Mr Beer asked: “You did take the advice of the PR guy, didn’t you?” Ms Vennells began her answer by saying “I don’t remember”, before loud groans came from the public gallery, prompting chairman Sir Wyn Williams to intervene.

She was also booed by people sitting in the public gallery, which was mostly made up of subpostmasters, on Friday. The boos sounded after an email Ms Vennells wrote in 2014 was read out in which she told colleagues former subpostmistress Jo Hamilton “lacked passion” in a BBC programme featuring campaigners.

She apologised directly to Ms Hamilton for being “so rude” about her in the email. The former subpostmistress said after the hearing: “I’m in two minds as to whether it was genuine or that she was so publicly ashamed.”

‘Trusting’ Vennells ‘didn’t know about IT faults’

Vennells claimed she didn’t know of IT faults with the Horizon system and said she had been “too trusting”. She agreed that it was a “frequent refrain” of the Post Office in 2014 that there were no systemic errors in Horizon – and described it as “completely unfair to use in the business”.

Ms Vennells began her evidence by apologising for “all that subpostmasters and families have suffered”. Asked if she was the “unluckiest CEO in the United Kingdom“, she said she had been “too trusting”.

After detailing a number of cases in which the Post Office had not been successful after subpostmasters blamed Horizon, counsel to the inquiry Jason Beer KC asked: “Why were you telling these parliamentarians that every prosecution involving the Horizon system had been successful and had found in favour of the Post Office?” After a short pause in which she appeared to compose herself, Ms Vennells said: “I fully accept now that the Post Office…”

She broke off her answer to grab a tissue and held her head in her hands for a brief moment before recomposing herself. Ms Vennells continued: “The Post Office knew that and I completely accepted. Personally I didn’t know that and I’m incredibly sorry that it happened to those people and to so many others.”

Explosive ‘I think you knew’ texts

Bombshell text messages show Vennells was accused by a friend of secretly knowing about problems with the Post Office IT system. Former Royal Mail boss Dame Moya Greene told the ex-Post Office chief executive: “I can’t now support you.” In a text exchange after the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office aired, Dame Moya wrote: “I think you knew.”

Dame Moya messaged Ms Vennells at the beginning of this year amid public anger over the scandal. She wrote: “When it was clear the system was at fault, the PO (Post Office) should have raised a red flag, stopped all proceedings, given people back their money and then tried to compensate them for the ruin this caused in their lives.”

Ms Vennells replied: “Yes I agree. This has/is taking too long Moya. The toll on everyone affected is dreadful.” Dame Moya said: “I don’t know what to say. I think you knew.” Ms Vennells responded: “No Moya, that isn’t the case.”

Dame Moya said: “I want to believe you. I asked you twice. I suggested you get an independent review reporting to you. I was afraid you were being lied to. You said the system had already been reviewed multiple times. How could you have not known?” Ms Vennells replied: “Moya, the mechanism for getting to the bottom of this is the inquiry. I’ve made it my priority to support it fully.”

Dame Moya later said: “I am sorry.. I can’t now support you. I have supported you. All these years.. to my own detriment. I can’t support you now after what I have learned.”

As she appeared at the Post Office Inquiry, Ms Vennells was questioned about the messages. Counsel to the inquiry, Jason Beer KC, said: “Moya asks how could you not know, you did not answer.” Ms Vennells said: “No… I was very concerned because I was aware that it is not good practice to be exchanging texts in the middle of an inquiry.”

Mr Beer responded: “How could you not know?” Ms Vennells said: “This is a situation that is so complex, it is a question I have asked myself as well. I have learned some things that I did not know as a result of the inquiry and I imagine that we will go through some of the detail of that. I wish I had known.”

Alan Bates has ‘no sympathy’ for Vennells

Subpostmaster campaigner Alan Bates has said he has “no sympathy” for Vennells. Speaking outside Aldwych House after Ms Vennells gave evidence, Mr Bates said: “The whole thing is upsetting for everybody, including for so many of the victims. I’ve got no sympathy really.” Asked if he thinks she is genuinely sorry, he added: “I wonder about these apologies, these are just words.”

Mr Bates went on to say Vennells’ evidence was “like figure skating on the head of a pin all day”, adding: “Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing? It’s only the first day of three so I don’t know where we’ll get to but it was good to see her on the stand.”

Vennells accused of living in ‘la la land’

On Friday, Edward Henry KC asked Ms Vennells: “There were so many forks in the road but you always took the wrong path didn’t you?” Mr Henry later continued: “You exercised power with no thought of the consequences of your actions despite those consequences staring you in the face?”

Ms Vennells told the barrister: “I understand your point that there are no words that I can find today that will make the sorrow and what people have gone through any better.” Mr Henry accused her of living in a “cloud of denial” and in “la la land”, of giving a “craven, self-serving account” in her 775-page witness statement and leading the Post Office through “deception, manipulation”.

Mr Stein accused Ms Vennells of setting a “let’s eliminate them” tone for the Post Office’s attitude towards the High Court case brought by lead campaigner Alan Bates and other subpostmasters between 2017 and 2019. The barrister said: “You set the tone, didn’t you Ms Vennells? The tone was, ‘let’s eliminate them, let’s get rid of these bugs in the system – the subpostmasters’. That’s what you set in place, wasn’t it Ms Vennells?” Ms Vennells replied: “I did not set a culture like that. I did not lead the litigation.”