Paula Vennells ‘devastated’ over missing information about faulty Horizon system
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Former Post Office CEO has maintained her innocence in a closing submission to the inquiry, saying executives did not share crucial information with her. Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive, has continued to maintain her innocence, saying she remains “devastated” that other executives did not share crucial information about the faulty Horizon IT system.
Lawyers for Vennells, writing on her behalf in closing submissions to the inquiry into the Post Office scandal, said no evidence had emerged to show she “acted in bad faith”. Vennells has previously publicly named five executives who she said were to blame for the scandal, but her lawyers said that she had “no desire to point the finger at others”.
“Despite Ms Vennells repeatedly attempting to resolve concerns of the subpostmasters during her leadership, she simply did not get the information which she ought to have been given by her senior team, whom she trusted and to whom she delegated responsible role,” her lawyers said in the submission on Monday.
“She had faith in them. She is devastated by the fact that information was not shared with her. She has no desire to point the finger at others, nor to speculate as to why information was not shared.”. Vennells, who was chief executive at the Post Office from 2012 to 2019, gave three days of testimony to the inquiry earlier this year denying knowledge of the faulty basis on which the prosecutions were carried out, saying that she was “too trusting” of key executives.
