Wrongfully convicted subpostmasters booed former postmaster general Paula Vennells after it emerged she had dismissed their stories of injustice as “hype and human interest”, saying she was bored rather than outraged.
The dramatic scenes came on the third day of her evidence at the Horizon IT scandal inquiry, during which the former chief executive apologized to a leading campaigner – who has been accused of stealing £36,000 – for being rude to her.
Subpostmasters in the public gallery at the hearing in London groaned when Ms Vennells said she could not remember whether she had taken the advice of a public relations expert not to review five to 10 years of past prosecutions.
Ms Vennells, who led the organization from 2012 to 2019, said there were no words during the statement that would make the “grief and what people went through” any better.
And she admitted that she has no one to blame but herself for what happened.
More than 700 sub-postmasters were prosecuted and convicted between 1999 and 2015 when their branches appeared to be missing money due to Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system.
When the BBC The One Show In 2014, sub-postmasters who fought to clear their names came forward, with Ms Vennells telling colleagues she was “more bored than outraged” when she heard about their cases, the inquiry was told, prompting uproar.
An email from December 2014 has been revealed in which the former chief executive claimed former sub-postal and campaigner Jo Hamilton “lacked passion and admitted false accounting on TV”.
After three days of evidence, Ms Vennells, who is also an ordained priest, apologized directly to Ms Hamilton on Friday, saying: “I am deeply sorry for being so rude to you in that email.”
But Mrs Hamilton said: “I accept anybody’s apology but whether they mean it or not is another matter. I’m not sure.
“I’m in two minds as to whether it was real or if she was so publicly embarrassed.”
Sam Stein KC, on behalf of a number of sub-postmasters, accused Ms Vennells of setting a “let’s get rid of them” tone for the Post Office’s stance on the High Court case between 2017 and 2019 by leading campaigner Alan Bates and others.
The barrister said: “The tone was, ‘Let’s remove them, let’s get rid of these bugs in the system – the sub-postmasters’. That’s what you set up, wasn’t it Mrs. Vennells?
She replied, “I didn’t set up that kind of culture. I didn’t lead the lawsuit.”
The post office’s head of communications, Mark Davies, said The One Show that the convicted subpostmasters faced “lifestyle problems”.
Boos came from the public gallery when Tim Moloney KC read Ms Vennells’ response to Ms Hamilton, who said: “I don’t dispute the fact that it’s unhelpful and inaccurate (particularly the focus on Horizon, but see below for thoughts on that). Mark (Davies) achieved balanced reporting beyond anything I could have hoped for.
“The listings punched across the screen with the word PO (Post Office) as a background was really strong. They highlighted everything we did and came off as … fact! Very good.
“The rest was hype and human interest. It wasn’t easy for me to be objective, but I was more bored than outraged.’
She added in an email: “There was nothing about intimidation, poor coaching and the message that I didn’t know how to use the system, in my eyes the SPMRS (subpostmasters) looked inadequate.”
Ms Vennells told the inquest on Friday: “I regret everything I said.”
She continued: “The pressure we were under at the time to try to manage – what we really felt – was the imbalance of media coverage and representation of what was happening at the post office.
“I have no excuse for what I wrote, except … I was under pressure and relieved that the program was perhaps not as bad or as hard as I expected.”
She broke down in tears more than once during three days of evidence, admitting she had let down the subpostmasters.
On Friday, she denied running the Post through “deception” and “manipulation”, saying: “I tried to address the culture in the organization which I found to be command and control, where people couldn’t have their say and they couldn’t speak up. “
She claimed that she had been recorded at the post office taking care of sub-postmasters.
She added: “One of my great regrets is that I didn’t do it for the sub-postmasters so affected and it will be with me.”
Hundreds of sub-postmasters are still waiting for compensation, despite the Government announcing that those whose convictions were overturned are entitled to £600,000 in payouts.