The Liberal Democrat leader, who was postal affairs minister from 2010 to 2012, gave evidence yesterday to the inquiry into the wrongful prosecution of post office operators on the basis of flawed data from Horizon. It is often described as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history.
"I now know I was being lied to," Davey told the inquiry. "It's pretty clear that what they told my officials was not true." Davey named the former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells and the former managing director David Smith as some of the "people passing information which was untrue", although he stopped short of accusing them personally of lying.
"Someone senior" in the Post Office must have known the truth, he said.
The Post Office Horizon inquiry has heard testimony from hundreds of witnesses over two years, ranging from affected post office operators to executives and board members at the state-owned body, as well as the politicians who ultimately controlled it.
This story is from the July 19, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the July 19, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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