Paula Vennells is due to give three days of evidence to the inquiry starting this morning, with campaigners urging the ordained priest to take responsibility for the widespread failure and cover-up of the Horizon scandal.
A victim of the Post Office Horizon scandal has told Sky News former boss Paula Vennells must “clean up” her evidence for a statutory inquiry.
Chirag Sidhpura, a former sub-postmaster who became one of the public advocates for justice based on his own treatment by the post office, said he expected a “culture of denial” and “lies” during Ms Vennells’ three days. planned evidence.
He is due to come before the inquest this morning.
The 65-year-old, who was Postmaster General from 2012 to 2019, will speak publicly about what happened for the first time in almost a decade.
Although she has since acknowledged that subpostmasters were wrongly accused and prosecuted for errors in the Horizon accounting system under her watch, the investigation will seek to reveal what she knew and when.
She told a committee of MPs in 2015: “We are a business that really cares about the people who work for us. If there were any miscarriages of justice, it would be really important for me and the Post Office to expose them.” As the investigation has passed, we have no evidence of this yet.”
Chirag Sidhpura: “I had breakdowns”
Victims at the heart of it scandal beg to differ.
Postal prosecutors were alerted to errors with Horizon days before the trial and eventual conviction of Sub-Postmaster Seema Misra in 2010 – before Ms Vennells took over.
There is further evidence – in the form of recordings leaked to Sky News – suggesting that Ms Vennells was told by May 2013 that Horizon operator Fujitsu had remote access to the system.
On Tuesday, ITV News reported that she described the potential wrongful conviction of sub-postmasters as “very concerning” in an October 2013 email.
This was written over a year before the company dropped the prosecution.
The experience of Chirag Sidhpura
Chirag personally wrote to Ms Vennells about his own case in 2017. His contract was terminated a week later.
He decided to hand over more than £57,000 to avoid prosecution. He lost not only his business, but also his house and mental health.
Chirag said of Ms Vennells’ evidence: “I think there will still be a culture of denial, of lies, of ‘I don’t remember, I don’t remember’.
“It’s on you in black and white that you did this, you made these decisions. Just calm down.”
The ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office ensured the spotlight was firmly on Ms Vennells, whose career has included stints at companies including L’Oreal and the NHS.
He is also an Anglican priest.
Read more:
Who is Paula Vennells?
The key questions a key postmaster must answer – and why her answers matter
The Post Office Horizon scandal explained
Former postmaster accused of lying
A lawyer’s view
Paul Marshall, a lawyer for the victims, told Sky News that Ms Vennells’ evidence was an opportunity for a “confession”, claiming she presided over a Post Office “cult” that had a corporate inability to accept shortcomings.
“In a sense she was or became the leader of what was indistinguishable from a cult.
“She had a belief system where anything that didn’t fit with this cult and its set of beliefs had to be either destroyed or ostracized and removed.”
Ms Vennells has pledged to co-operate fully with the investigation and, like all witnesses, must swear to tell the truth before giving evidence.
In a statement she released earlier this year, she said: “I continue to support and aim to co-operate with the investigation and look forward to giving evidence in the coming months.
“I am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families whose lives have been torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system.
“I now intend to continue to focus on assisting the investigation and will not be making any further public comments until it is concluded.”
Watch Paula Vennells being questioned at the inquest live on Sky News on Wednesday. Watch Sky News live here and on YouTube or on TV on Freeview 233, Sky 501, Virgin 603 and BT 313. You can also catch the latest on the Sky News website and app.