Vennells blames five Post Office executives for Horizon scandal
The Guardian|May 25, 2024
Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive, has named five executives who she said were to blame for the Horizon scandal, including a missing IT expert and a former in-house lawyer who has refused to appear at the public inquiry.
Daniel Boffey
Vennells blames five Post Office executives for Horizon scandal

During a third day of tearful evidence in front of the inquiry, Vennells denied she had given "craven and self-serving" testimony but readily provided the names of those she claimed had let her down.

Vennells, who was the head of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019, has repeatedly claimed in evidence that she was denied information from her senior staff, and that she was "too trusting" of key executives.

Hundreds of Post Office branch operators were prosecuted, hounded for money and in some cases pushed to suicide between 1996 and 2015 after errors in the Horizon software system produced financial shortfalls in their branches. The Post Office continued to fight branch operators seeking justice until 2019.

"I loved the Post Office," Vennells told the inquiry tearfully, before Sam Stein KC, representing victims, said she was talking "absolute rubbish".

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