Tearful Paula Vennells blames senior colleagues for hiding truth

Tearful Paula Vennells blames senior colleagues for hiding truth

By Tom Witherow, Mario Ledwith, Laurence Sleator — Read time: 4 minutes

Paula Vennells broke down in tears three times as she told the Horizon IT inquiry that she was misled by senior executives at the Post Office.

The former chief executive, speaking in public about the scandal for the first time in ten years, said that she was too “trusting” of her senior team and ­accepted their reassurances that the IT system was working.

She blamed senior lawyers at the Post Office for failing to give her the ­unvarnished truth about the company’s prosecutions, and computer experts on Fujitsu for saying that their IT was as strong as “Fort Knox”.

Post Office inquiry: Paula Vennells says she’s “very, very sorry”

Vennells, 65, who ran the company from 2010 to 2019, snatched a tissue and choked as she was asked about a false statement she gave to MPs — that every Post Office prosecution involving Horizon had been successful.

Dame Moya Greene, the former chief executive of Royal Mail, which owned the Post Office until 2012, ­accused Vennells in a 2024 text ­exchange: “I think you knew.”

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She added: “You said the system had already been reviewed multiple times. How could you not have known?”

The hearing, the first of three days, came as the Metropolitan Police ­reassured the leading postmaster ­campaigner Alan Bates that they would investigate Post Office figures.

• Paula Vennells cries while giving evidence at Post Office inquiry — as it happened

In a private meeting, ­officers told Bates that they were “very open” about which crimes they would consider, including “corporate and ­individual” offences.

Bates said that he had “no sympathy” with Vennells’s tears and that her ­evidence was “like figure-skating on the head of a pin”.

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“It was the failure of management right the way across the board, and she was in charge of all that, the problem lies with her at the end of the day,” he said. “And I wonder about these ­apologies — they are just words.”

Vennells was escorted into the hearing, off the Strand, in central London, by three police officers through photographers. The last time she spoke in public about the scandal was in ­February 2015, in front of the business select committee, when she denied that there had been miscarriages of justice.

Alan Bates said that Vennells’s evidence was “like figure skating on the head of a pin”

Alan Bates said that Vennells’s evidence was “like figure skating on the head of a pin”

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

She said that she was “very, very ­sorry” that “sub-postmasters and their families and others have suffered”. She said: “I was too trusting. I did probe and I did ask questions, and I’m disappointed where information wasn’t shared.” The first time she broke down was when she was asked about a false statement she made to MPs in 2012.

She told parliamentarians that every Post Office prosecution involving ­Horizon had been successful, according to minutes shown to the inquiry, which was untrue in four cases where ­postmasters had won, or been acquitted at trial.

“I fully accept now that Post Office knew … sorry … that the Post Office knew [this was untrue]”, she said. ­“Personally I didn’t know that, and I’m incredibly sorry that that happened to those people and to so many others.”

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She claimed that she did not know the Post Office carried out its own ­prosecutions until 2012, and that key documents never reached her. They ­revealed that the Post Office’s leading expert witness had misled several jury trials and named her two general ­counsels, Susan Crichton and Chris ­Aujard. Crichton has said that she did brief Vennells.

Jess Kaur lost her childhood memories after she suffered a mental breakdown while being prosecuted by the Post Office

Jess Kaur lost her childhood memories after she suffered a mental breakdown while being prosecuted by the Post Office

TOM PILSTON

Vennells broke down when she said she now accepted her claim that every case against postmasters had been successful was known by the Post Office to be untrue

Vennells broke down when she said she now accepted her claim that every case against postmasters had been successful was known by the Post Office to be untrue

PA

Vennells, however, said that she did not believe there was a “conspiracy” among Post Office staff to deny her ­information, saying instead that ­“individuals, myself included, made mistakes, didn’t see things, didn’t hear things”.

Jason Beer KC, lead counsel to the ­inquiry, asked if she was the “unluckiest CEO in the United Kingdom”.

• 14 key moments from Paula Vennells at the Post Office inquiry

In another dramatic moment, the ­inquiry was shown texts in which ­Greene told Vennells that she believed she “knew” about bugs in the Horizon IT system. In the exchange, from this year, Greene said: “I don’t know what to say. I think you knew.”

Vennells replied: “No Moya, that isn’t the case.” Greene 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 not have known?”

The inquiry room, packed with postmasters, reacted angrily to Vennells’s tears. Jess Kaur, who lost her childhood memories after a breakdown while being prosecuted by the Post Office and who featured in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, said: “We’ve all cried — it doesn’t matter if she cries. She can’t remember anything, she can’t ­recall anything. She needs to admit to everything. She knows it’s all wrong.”

Six postmasters successfully ­appealed against their convictions­, taking the total number to more than 110, with one going straight from the Royal Courts of ­Justice to hear Vennells’s evidence.