After years of keeping a low profile Paula Venables was thrust into the spotlight this week and making her way through a scrum of cameras may have been the easy part. She started with an apology. I would just like to say, and im gratefulfor the opportunity to do this in person, how sorry i am for all that subpostmasters and theirfamilies and others have suffered as a result of all of the matters that the inquiry has been looking into for so long. There were tears as she was asked about the death of a subpostmaster who took his own life after being financially ruined by the post office. And i mentioned that. Im sorry. I imagine that i was probably. Just pause. Try and compose yourself if you can, and then continue your evidence, please. She defended her role. She may have been the boss, she said, but she wasnt responsible for everything. And she wasnt told everything either. You are not responsible for everything that happens underneath you. You have to rely on the advice of internal an
Paula Vennells is giving evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, and so the Mirror has taken a look at her reduced life now, from handing back her CBE to her almost becoming Bishop of London
The former CEO, who is today being grilled at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, broke down in tears and apologised to postmasters - but body language experts say the apology was 'unusual'
Paula Vennells was chief executive of the Post Office between 1999 and 2015 and was CEO during part of the Horizon scandal, which saw more than 900 subpostmasters wrongly convicted