Prim and nasty Vennells must now face prosecution along
with her evil band of cohorts
By ALAN FRAME
You may have gathered from what I have written here before that I’m none too keen on Paula Vennells. After watching three days of questioning at the Post Office inquiry I now know what a fine judge of character I am.
My interest in the scandal is not just one of a natural instinct for justice. I know one of Vennells’ victims, a lovely, decent woman called Linda Dance who ran the village post office in Tatsfield, Kent where I lived for more than 30 years. Linda was respected by all who knew her and when she finally packed up and moved away she was given the sort of send-off she so richly deserved.
She was duped by the Horizon system out of more than £10,000, money she paid from her own resources and like the quiet, decent person she is, just got on with serving her customers.
Not so the appalling Vennells, a prim and nasty self-preservationist who so obviously failed to follow what she preached as an ordained Anglican priest She is now exposed as a useless chief executive, at least if we are to believe her protestations that she knew nothing of what was being inflicted on those poor sub-postmasters. She denied just about everything laid before her, ‘I can’t remember...could you please repeat the question...not that I can say for sure...no, I wasn’t aware of that.’
For the first two days of her questioning it was Jason Beer KC whose quiet forensic approach reduced her to reaching for the Kleenex four times. Day Three was very different, the XL bully dogs were brought in and there was no let up. Both Sam Stein KC and Ed Henry KC were relentless. ‘You led by deception, manipulation and word-weaving,’ Henry said. Stein was equally blunt: ‘You set the tone, let’s get rid of the bugs (and) the postmasters.’
Worse still was Vennells’ email after she watched a BBC One Show which featured an item on the scandal and on which that dignified sub-postmistress Jo Hamilton made an appearance. It read ‘... it was hype and human interest ... I was more bored than outraged ... the MP was full of bluster and inaccurate ... Jo Hamilton lacked passion and admitted false accounting on TV. And the bulletin was too long.’
So there we have it. A woman who was once on the shortlist for the job as Bishop of London (has the Church of England finally lost the plot?), lacks any normal human feelings of compassion or even decency. A woman who has spent the last year cosseted with the super-expensive Mishcon lawyers (funded I understand through a company insurance scheme) but has no answers and no excuses other than an awful memory.
She certainly didn’t earn her £750,000-a-year salary as ceo if we are to believe her that she asked no awkward questions of her senior staff, knew nothing, saw nothing, said nothing and heard nothing. Everything a leader must do.
‘I loved the Post Office,’ she said tearfully. So too did the 900 sub-postmasters who were prosecuted, so too did those who went to jail, who went bankrupt, who lost their homes and livelihood. So too, no doubt, did Mark Griffiths who killed himself when he faced having to repay £100,000 he hadn’t stolen.
Vennells and her nasty band of cohorts should now face criminal prosecution and the inevitable consequences. Meanwhile, Linda Dance continues to be a lovely honest woman whose life for so long was serving the people of Tatsfield. She loved them and they loved her.
25 May 2024
