Paula Vennells Post Office Inquiry live: Ex-CEO booed over calling postmasters ‘inadequate’ in bombshell email

Paula Vennells felt “uncomfortable” in the course of the High Court case introduced by lead campaigner Alan Bates and admitted the judgments made for “unacceptable reading”.

The case, referred to as the group litigation, racked up payments which Mr Justice Fraser thought of to be “expensive” and subpostmasters have beforehand accused the Post Office of deploying a deliberate tactic to outspend them. More than 550 claimants introduced the group authorized motion between 2017 and 2019.

Mr Justice Fraser concluded that the Horizon system contained quite a few “bugs, errors and defects” and that there was a “material risk” that shortfalls in Post Office department accounts have been attributable to the system.

At the Horizon IT inquiry on Friday, Sam Stein KC, on behalf of quite a few subpostmasters, requested Ms Vennells: “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?”

The former Post Office chief govt replied: “I did not set a culture like that. I did not lead the litigation … in view of the judgments that were taken and where we are today, it is unacceptable reading.”

Former Post Office chief govt has admitted that the Post Office’s therapy of bankrupted subpostmaster Lee Castleton was “unforgivable”, Josh Payne reviews.

East Yorkshire subpostmaster Mr Castleton was discovered to have a £25,000 shortfall at his department in 2004 and was made bankrupt after he misplaced his authorized battle with the Post Office.

Ms Vennells advised the probe that the actual fact Mr Castleton was “locked out” of a mediation scheme for individuals who believed they’d been wrongly prosecuted by the Post Office was “unacceptable”.

Edward Henry KC, a lawyer representing quite a few subpostmasters, stated: “You preach compassion, you don’t practice it. For example, with Mr Castleton he was even closed out of the mediation process and you know why that was, don’t you?”

The former Post Office chief govt, who can be an ordained Anglican priest in the Church of England, replied: “I’m sorry, I cannot recall the detail of that. I wasn’t personally involved in which cases did or didn’t go into the mediation scheme.”

Mr Henry continued: “It so deeply moved you, you said in your statement, ‘it was so shocking’, yet he was locked out of the mediation scheme because… he was an illustrious scalp… that could be used in the GLO (group litigation scheme)?”

Ms Vennells stated: “What occurred to Mr Castleton is totally unacceptable. At the time his case was not taken by the scheme, I personally wasn’t concerned in the choice, however the Post Office took the choice based mostly on authorized recommendation.

“It was unsuitable, Mr Henry, I utterly agree with that – and what occurred to Mr Castleton is unforgivable.”

Former subpostmaster Keith Bell – who was falsely convicted of false accounting over a £3,000 shortfall – stated he was “disappointed” by Paula Vennells’ responses to the inquiry.

“She’s had the opportunity to truthfully answer the questions. The facts were there, she can’t deny them,” he advised Sky News.

“It was her job to understand and to act on the facts and not go down the route she decided to take.”

Here are some extra reactions to Paula Vennells’s 2014 email, which drew boos from the gallery when it was proven.

Law Society Gazette deputy information editor John Hyde suggests “there’s no coming back from that”.

Jamie Robertson of Channel 4 famous it was “a very bad moment” for the previous chief govt.

And Tom Hamilton of The Times identified that subpostmistress Jo Hamilton was watching on as barrister Tim Moloney challenged Ms Vennells over the claims made about her in the email.

Former subpostmistress Jo Hamilton stated she doubts the sincerity of Paula Vennells’s apology to her.

Ms Vennells apologised to Ms Hamilton immediately after an email the previous Post Office boss wrote was learn out on the Horizon inquiry in which she stated the subpostmistress “lacked passion and admitted false accounting on TV” – which drew boos from the gallery when it was proven.

After the listening to, Ms Hamilton stated: “I accept anyone’s apology but whether she means it or not is another matter. I’m not sure.”

Asked if it meant one thing to listen to Ms Vennells apologise, she stated: “Not really, no. I think people only say sorry, well some people say sorry and mean it, but I don’t know whether it was meant or not. I’m in two minds as to whether it was genuine or that she was so publicly ashamed.”

Proceedings have now completed.

The inquiry’s chair Sir Wyn Williams concluded that he was grateful to Paula Vennells for her very lengthy witness assertion and for giving proof this week.

Paula Vennells has been booed by some in the gallery as an email was proven in which she stated postmasters had appeared “inadequate” and “boring” throughout a TV look in 2014.

Pressed by Tim Moloney KC over her “triumphalist” email (see submit beneath for particulars), Ms Vennells stated there was “simply no excuse” for what she had written and that she had apologised to subpostmaster Jo Hamilton.

“Is it in fact that they were triumphalist remarks and you regret them now because you’re here?” he pressed.

She stated: “I utterly agree, that the strain we have been below on the time to attempt to handle what we genuinely felt was an imbalance of media protection and illustration about what was taking place in the Post Office, and I feel below strain … I’ve no excuse for what I wrote.

“Other than, as I say, I used to be below strain, and I feel I used to be relieved that the programme hadn’t been maybe as unhealthy or as hard-hitting as I’d anticipated it to be. And I’m simply vastly sorry – it was a horrible factor to put in writing.

She added: “I used to be maybe very relieved … There is solely no excuse as a result of, it wouldn’t matter, wouldn’t it, how unhealthy it had been – as a result of we have been unsuitable.”

Ms Vennells denied that this actually mirrored the behind-closed-doors perspective in direction of postmasters.

Following her denunciation of Post Office comms director Mark Davies’ declare in 2014 that subpostmasters “faced lifestyle difficulties”, Paula Vennells has been proven an email she despatched eight days later congratulating him for “achieving a balance of reporting beyond anything I could have hoped for”.

The email despatched by Ms Vennells a couple of One Show broadcast stated: “They emphasised everything we have done and came across as … fact! Very good.”

She claimed the remainder of the present was “hype and human interest” and stated she “was more bored than outraged” watching it. She added that now-acquitted subpostmaster Jo Hamilton “lacked passion and admitted false accounting on TV”, and claimed the section made postmasters look “inadequate”.

Paula Vennells is being requested about Post Office comms director suggesting in 2014 on BBC Radio 4 that subpostmasters had “faced lifestyle difficulties”.

Asked what she considered these remarks, Ms Vennells stated: “I remember listening to it and thinking ‘oh Mark’. As he said here, I don’t think he ever intended that word to come out.”

She accepts it was extraordinarily insensitive. By that point, one subpostmaster had served an 18-month jail sentence whereas a mom to youngsters. She has subsequently had her conviction quashed. Another longserving native councillor had spent his 60th birthday behind bars.

Tim Moloney KC stated: “They’d all been subject to public censure and humiliation, and you’ve had a taste of that now Ms Vennells, haven’t you, in recent times. And it’s not very nice, is it? And if somebody were to say to you, Paula, you appear to have a bit of a lifestyle difficulty at the moment, might you consider that could be viewed as slightly ironic or sarcastic.”

Ms Vennells stated: “It was just completely the wrong word.”

Asked to clarify why she would by no means have stated that herself, Ms Vennells stated: “For the reason that I’m here today. Because people’s lives have been absolutely devastated.”

Challenged that it was “not simply reflecting the dismissive attitude Post Office had” in direction of subpostmasters, Ms Vennells stated: “I don’t believe so. I can understand why people would think that, and I regret hugely that we are where we are today.”

She denied fostering that dismissive perspective.