Ex-Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells has been caught out by her own email in which she appears to suggest “managing the media” was a priority over reviewing Horizon cases.
Giving evidence at the Post Office scandal inquiry for a second day on Thursday, Ms Vennells said the idea given by former director of communications Mark Davies in 2013 that the Post Office should not review historical cases involving the Horizon IT system from “five to 10 years” ago because it would be “on the front page” was a “grossly improper perspective”.
Yet an email shown to the inquiry revealed that she had replied to Mr Davies at the time: “You are right to call this out. And I will take your steer, no issue. There are two objectives, the most urgent being to manage the media.
“The second is to make sure we do address the concerns of JA [ex-MP James Arbuthnot] and Alan Bates.”
It comes a day after Ms Vennells was accused of crying “crocodile tears” and also admitted that statements made in her letters to MPs in response to questions about Horizon were wrong.
