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

Campaigner Alan Bates said he met “senior” Metropolitan Police staff on Wednesday morning to discuss possible prosecutions following the Post Office Horizon scandal.

He said: “They certainly are going to investigate, I’ve had that assurance and I think the group needs that as an assurance and it’s something that we’ve never been certain of until today.”

Paula Vennells said she accepts statements made in her letters to MPs in response to questions about Horizon were wrong, in her first witness statement.

Ms Vennells was asked by the inquiry to comment on statements in her letters to three MPs, including: saying to Nicholas Brown MP that “the system has proved to be very robust since its introduction”; a statement to Mike Weir MP that the Post Office was “fully confident that the Horizon computer system ... enabled sub postmasters to account accurately for the transactions they undertake in their branch”; and her statement to Mike Weir MP that “there is no evidence at all that the Horizon system has in some way been at fault with respect to any financial irregularities discovered in a sub postmasters account”.

She said she “believed these statements to be true”, adding they were “justified by specialist knowledge, because I understood that these statements came from, or were approved by, senior specialist managers with detailed knowledge of the Horizon system and the operation of SPM accounts”.

Ms Vennells added: “I accept that these statements were wrong”.

Paula Vennells has been accused of asking her team to “dig into” the records of Martin Griffiths, who stepped in front of a bus after being sacked from his Post Office branch in 2013.

The former Post Office chief was quizzed at the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal about an email she sent after his suicide attempt suggesting she had heard about “previous mental health and family issues”.

In the email to Post Office executives, Ms Vennells said: “Can you let me know what background we have on Martin? I had heard, but have yet to see a formal report, that there were previously mental health issues and potential family issues.”

Inquiry lead counsel Jason Beer KC asked if Ms Vennells was asking her team to “dig into Mr Griffiths’ health records to look for information or evidence that he took his life because of mental issues or family issues?”

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:

A former subpostmaster who tried to warn the Post Office about the Horizon IT system emailed Paula Vennells when she was chief executive, saying: “I do wonder what kind of god you worship”.

In 2015, Tim McCormack wrote to Ms Vennells, an ordained priest, warning her that he had “clear and unquestionable evidence of an intermittent bug in Horizon that can and does cause thousands of pounds in losses to subpostmasters”.

Giving evidence at the inquiry, Ms Vennells denied sharing the view of Post Office lawyer Rodric Williams that Mr McCormack was a bluffer but said she did not recall what she did about the subpostmaster’s email.

The probe heard Mr McCormack sent another message to Ms Vennells in July 2016, saying: “A typical head in the sand reply from the team you have placed too much trust in. Once the police investigation is completed it is highly likely, indeed probable, that members of your staff will be sent to prison. Your role in this will not escape attention.”

He added: “I do wonder what kind of god you worship.”

Campaigner Alan Bates has said he has “no sympathy” for Paula Vennells after her tears.

Speaking outside Aldwych House after Ms Vennells gave evidence, Mr Bates said: “The whole thing is upsetting for everybody, including for so many of the victims. I’ve got no sympathy really.”

Asked if he thinks she is genuinely sorry, he added: “I wonder about these apologies, these are just words.”

Campaigner Alan Bates has said Paula Vennells’ evidence was “like figure skating on the head of a pin”.

Speaking outside Aldwych House after Ms Vennells gave evidence, Mr Bates said: “It was a bit like figure skating on the head of a pin all day, isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing?

“It’s only the first day of three so I don’t know where we’ll get to but it was good to see her on the stand.”

The inquiry’s chair Sir Wyn Williams thanked those in the gallery for their restraint throughout today’s proceedings, as the hearing was adjourned for the day.

He said: “Can I say to the members of the public and the core participants who were present that it would have been possible for there to have been a lot more verbal intervention than there has been from the floor – and I’m very grateful to you for your restrained behaviour during the course of the day.

“But that’s not to encourage you to be less restrained, that is to encourage you to be, if anything, even more restrained during the remainder of this week.”

Postal worker’s union CWU posted a video of Vennells’ tearful testimony accusing her of producing “crocodile tears”.

They added: “No tears when postmasters were tragically taking their own lives due to stress. No tears when postmasters were being jailed. “No tears when postmasters had their whole communities turning against them. Tears now are too late. Paula Vennells must be held to account.”

Sir Wyn Williams asks just before break about the Post Office strategy and whether Vennells was being advised to be “very precise, very circumspect and very guarded” about what you said to MPs.

She replies: “I would [agree] but I’m not sure I would have noticed that on the morning of the day.”

He asks: “Why?

She takes some five seconds to begin her answer: “With hindsight because possibly...

He interjects: “If you need time to think about it you can tell me in the morning” to laughter from the gallery.

She appears to begin to tear up again.