{"id":34525,"date":"2024-04-24T17:47:11","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T17:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/24\/post-office-vennells-opposed-stopping-postmaster-prosecutions\/"},"modified":"2024-04-24T17:47:12","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T17:47:12","slug":"post-office-vennells-opposed-stopping-postmaster-prosecutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/24\/post-office-vennells-opposed-stopping-postmaster-prosecutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Post Office: Vennells opposed stopping postmaster prosecutions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells ignored calls from the organisation\u2019s top management team to halt sub-postmaster prosecutions, the Horizon IT inquiry has heard.<\/b><\/p>\n

Former top in-house lawyer Chris Aujard said that in 2013 the executive committee \u201cwere in favour of ceasing prosecutions entirely\u201d, but Ms Vennells said \u201climited\u201d prosecutions should continue.<\/p>\n

The inquiry is investigating the wrongful conviction of hundreds of sub-postmasters on the basis of evidence from the faulty Horizon software.<\/p>\n

Ms Vennells has consistently said she is \u201ctruly sorry for the suffering caused to sub-postmasters and their families\u201d.<\/p>\n

She has previously added that she is co-operating with the inquiry and that \u201cit would be inappropriate for me to comment further while it remains ongoing\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Mr Aujard told the inquiry he was opposed to the way sub-postmasters were being prosecuted in 2013.<\/p>\n

His said his personal view was that \u201ccriminal prosecutions cause great stress and anxiety and didn\u2019t have a place in a business such as the Post Office\u201d.<\/p>\n

When asked whether Ms Vennells seemed in favour of continuing to pursue cases using evidence from Horizon, Mr Aujard said she was not specific at the time.<\/p>\n

Mr Aujard was the Post Office\u2019s top lawyer from 2013 to 2015, during which time the independent forensic accountants Second Sight, who played a key role in exposing the scandal, were sacked.<\/p>\n

When asked at the inquiry if the dismissal of Second Sight lacked fairness and transparency, Mr Aujard said: \u201cThat\u2019s correct – certainly fairness.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the beginning of his session, Mr Aujard apologised to the wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters and their families for the \u201canguish and suffering\u201d they have had to endure, adding the inquiry has come \u201cfar too late\u201d for many of the victims.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, the inquiry also heard from Mr Aujard\u2019s predecessor Susan Crichton, who said she was \u201cput into a position where I couldn\u2019t do my job\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added that former Post Office lawyers Rob Wilson and Jarnail Singh had a “rather unhealthy view” of sub-postmasters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells ignored calls from the organisation\u2019s top management team to halt sub-postmaster prosecutions, the Horizon IT inquiry has heard. Former top in-house lawyer Chris Aujard said that in 2013 the executive committee \u201cwere in favour of ceasing prosecutions entirely\u201d, but Ms Vennells said \u201climited\u201d prosecutions should continue. The inquiry is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_bbc\/21d9\/live\/ec375dc0-0252-11ef-8369-47dc4454b972.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[604],"tags":[1951,14814,418,37992,30663,37991,28471],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34525"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34527,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34525\/revisions\/34527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}