Watch again as Paula Vennells gave her final day of evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry on Friday (24 May).
The former Post Office chief executive has been subjected to two days of tough questioning by the inquiry’s lead counsel Jason Beer KC, breaking down in tears multiple times as she apologised to victims and was pressed on her response to the death of subpostmaster Martin Griffiths.
On Thursday, Ms Vennells insisted the idea given by former communications director Mark Davies in 2013 that the Post Office should not review historical cases involving Horizon from “five to 10 years” ago because it would be “on the front page” was a “grossly improper perspective”.
But an email shown to the inquiry then revealed she had replied to Mr Davies at the time: “You are right to call this out. And I will take your steer, no issue. There are two objectives, the most urgent being to manage the media. The second is to make sure we do address the concerns of JA [ex-MP James Arbuthnot] and Alan Bates.”
