Ms Vennells broke down again as she was asked about her response to the death of Martin Griffiths, a subpostmaster who died by suicide after walking in front of a bus after being pursued for a shortfall.
Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells today slammed campaigner Alan Bates as being 'unhelpful' after he blamed the Post Office for the suicide of a wrongly accused postmaster.
Ms Vennells, who was chief executive at the company from 2012 to 2019, began her evidence issuing a grovelling apology to victims of the scandal, saying she was 'very, very sorry' - which one postmaster later described as a 'PR apology'. The inquiry was shown an email exchange in September 2013, prompted by the incident involving Mr Griffiths', in which he pointed out that the Post Office had 'driven him to suicide'.'I would just like to say, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to do this, how sorry I am for all that subpostmasters and their families and others have suffered as a result of all of the matters that the inquiry is looking into.''One of my reflections of all of this - I was too trusting.
Jason Beer KC asked: 'You say in your statement that 'this was a time of great distress for Mr Griffiths's family, and I felt the accusations of blame were unhelpful'... is that right that you felt that Mr Bates's accusations of blame were unhelpful?' An email chain between former Post Office general counsel Susan Crichton and Ms Vennells was also shown, in which Ms Vennells says 'if it is an attempted suicide, as we sadly know, there are usually several contributory factors'.
Post Office boss Paula Vennells gestures as she gives evidence to the inquiry at Aldwych House, central London Mr Griffiths worked at Hope Farm Road post office in Ellesmere Port, and had spent about two decades with the company, with 18 of those as a sub-postmaster.He was also deemed culpable for an armed robbery in May 2013 for which the Post Office demanded he pay them back £7,500.
Ms Vennells said tasking her team with looking into Mr Griffiths' situation was because she wanted to find out about allegations the Post Office was responsible for his death, and not to 'get on the front foot'. Asked if it reflected the 'workings of the minds' of those at the top of the business, Ms Vennells said: 'I think it reflects a wrong understanding yes that people believed that Horizon worked and this is me deploying a word that was unwise.A few minutes later there was sardonic laughter in the inquiry room as Ms Vennells was quizzed about an email to her from subpostmaster Tim McCormack in 2015 explaining he had evidence of flaws.
He later emailed her to describe her team as 'a complete bunch of idiots playing havoc with the lives of people you have little interest in.' Speaking after her brief break down earlier, a former subpostmaster accused Ms Vennells of making a 'PR apology'. Janet Skinner expressed sympathy over the position of the former chief executive on Wednesday, giving evidence to a room of people with 'eyes full of hatred'.
Mr Castleton, from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, was found to have a £25,000 shortfall at his branch in 2004. He was made bankrupt after he lost his legal battle with the Post Office. Asked about Ms Vennells breaking down in tears, he added: 'She'll never shed as many as I have, I'm afraid, or my family, or the rest of the victims or the wider group.'I'd imagine a lot of it's nerves too and doing her best. I think she's got a need or want to do the right thing.'
The complaints included faults with Horizon, problems with mis-balancing, shortfalls being wrongly attributed to subpostmasters, wrongful convictions, and complaints about Horizon training and its helpline.She then paused for several seconds to compose herself as she choked back tears, before adding: 'There were questions in the organisation at a board and executive level, about whether this was a distraction of management time.
Ms Vennells replied: 'At the time they were not considered to be false statements. I didn't believe any of those statements were folklore at all.' She suggested the Post Office legal team may have been the source of some inaccuracies. She said she thought Post Office workers were instead prosecuted by 'external authorities'. She said she and other colleagues 'were surprised' when they discovered about the prosecutions by the organisation.
Read More Is this the 'smoking gun' that proves there was a Post Office cover-up amid the Horizon IT scandal? Shamed boss Paula Vennells was told postmasters may have been wrongly convicted back in 2013, leaked emails and tape reveal Vennells continued: 'I would just like to say, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to do this in person, how sorry I am for all that subpostmasters and their families and others who suffered as a result of all of the matters that the inquiry has...
Ms Vennells said: 'As the inquiry has heard, there was information I wasn't given and others didn't receive as well. One of my reflections of all of this - I was too trusting.'Mr Beer asked: 'Was there a conspiracy at the Post Office which lasted for nearly 12 years involving a wide range of people, differing over time, to deny you information and to deny you documents and to falsely give you reassurance.
She denied Mr Beer's suggestion that the comment in her witness statement, submitted less than two months ago but read for the first time in public today, was 'a perpetuation of a culture that ran through the Post Office of failing to take responsibility for the use of powers that it elected to use, and indeed use robustly, and instead blame the IT'.
Ms Vennells replied: 'I was told multiple times … that there had been no evidence found. I was told that nothing had been found.' Mr Beer said: 'Why were you telling Parliamentarians every prosecution involving the Horizon system had been successful and had found in favour of the Post Office?' Mock-up of the email sent by former Post Office boss Paula Vennells after she received detailed case files of eight subpostmasters that had potentially been wrongly convictedMs Vennells later said she was not aware of any system in place to record if the Post Office lost any of its criminal cases.The inquiry previously heard Ms Vennells told MPs the Post Office had never been defeated at court when prosecuting subpostmasters.
Many were sent to jail and bankrupted, while at least four are believed to have taken their own lives over it. But today marks the first time Ms Vennells, an ordained Anglican priest, has given live evidence to the inquiry - and offered her the opportunity to respond to a litany of allegations about her time at the Post Office.
'I sat behind her in the select committee in 2015 and you could see from the body language, I believe she knew then in 2015.' She eventually pleaded guilty to false accounting in fear of going to jail - having twice re-mortgaged her house - and was prosecuted in 2006, but had her conviction quashed in 2021 when she was found to be a victim of the Post Office Horizon scandal.
Mr Castleton repeatedly asked the Post Office for help but was sacked and sued for refusing to repay the cash. He was made bankrupt after a two-year legal bill and ordered to pay more than £300,000 for the company's legal bill. Ms Vennells is said to have maintained Horizon was 'robust' and was so wedded to issues being a fault with the subpostmasters rather than the software that she falsely told a Government minister in 2012 that the courts found in the Post Office's favour 'in every instance' when prosecuting subpostmasters for theft or false accounting.
ITV News reported that the October 2013 email, as well as a recording of a phone conversation involving Ms Vennells, confirmed she was sent case files of eight subpostmasters. The revelation has been described by Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi as the 'smoking gun' that is the cover-up of the Horizon IT scandal and has called on her to 'finally admit the truth'.
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