Watch: Paula Vennells gives evidence at Post Office Horizon IT inquiry
Watch as Paula Vennells gave evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry on Wednesday (22 May).
The disgraced former Post Office boss did not answer any questions as she entered Aldwych House in London on Wednesday.
She began her three days of evidence amid claims she covered-up the Post Office’s knowledge of bugs in the faulty accounting software.
Hundreds of subpostmasters were prosecuted by the business between 1999 and 2015 after Horizon, owned by Japanese company Fujitsu, made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
Ms Vennells, a 65-year-old ordained priest, was Post Office boss from 2012 to 2019 – a time period in which the company was beginning to have to deal with the fall-out of potential wrongful subpostmaster convictions.
She has been urged by the scandal’s victims to tell the truth in the lead-up to her evidence and “come clean” with any personal wrongdoings.
The probe previously heard Ms Vennells had hoped that there would not be an independent inquiry – even having her number blocked by ex-head of IT Lesley Sewell after seeking her help to avoid one.
She was questioned under oath just hours after an email surfaced which showed Ms Vennells describe potential wrongful convictions of subpostmasters as “very disturbing” more than a year before the company halted prosecutions.