The wife of a sub-postmaster who died before he could clear his name in the Horizon IT scandal wants ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells to explain why it happened.
Marion Holmes, 82, says husband Peter was destroyed by the false allegations that he stole £46,000 from the branch he was managing. He died of a brain tumour, still tormented by the court conviction that he never deserved.
Starting today, former Post Office chief executive Ms Vennells is due to be quizzed for three days as part of the inquiry into the Horizon scandal. Marion said: “I want to be able to look her in the eye and see what she’s thinking.
Marion and Peter smiling together (MDG)“I think I’ll be angry more than anything. I just want to know why. I want to know why it all happened. Was it for profit? Was it ignorance? I’d find that hard.”
Retired Anglican priest Ms Vennells, 65, held the top job at the Post Office from 2012 to 2019. When she gives evidence to the public inquiry, lawyers will attempt to find out exactly what she knew during her tenure.
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Marion said: “If you’re taking the sort of salary a CEO is taking, to say nothing of the bonuses, then the buck stops with you. I want her to admit that.” Among the questions Ms Vennells is likely to face are whether she misled MPs about whether remote access to the Horizon system was possible, and why the Post Office did not disclose legal advice in 2013 highlighting problems with past prosecutions.
Marion wants Paula Vennells (pictured) to explain why the scandal happened (Parliament TV)She will also be asked why the Post Office continued to fight a High Court case brought by 554 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses to overturn their wrongful convictions. Peter, a former police officer, was in charge of the Jesmond Post Office in Newcastle in 2008 when the allegations were made against him.
Marion said of her husband’s anguish: “He was always a people person, but he completely shut down.” When the case went to court in 2010, Peter, who had been a sub-postmaster for more than a decade, was offered a plea bargain.
The Post Office said it would drop the theft charge if he pleaded guilty to false accounting. Knowing what life in jail would be like for him as a former policeman, he took the deal and was given a suspended jail sentence.
Marion said her husband had his reputation destroyed by the false allegations (MDG)Peter died in 2015 aged 74. His family said his conviction was finally overturned six years after his death. The faulty Horizon IT system provided by Fujitsu was why cash was showing as missing from branches.
The Mirror revealed in January that Fujitsu is still getting government contracts worth £100million a year. Mum-of-three Marion intends to watch the public inquiry with other campaigners in the Warwickshire village of Fenny Compton where they first gathered to expose the scandal. Thinking about the potential motives of Post Office bosses at the time, Marion wonders if it was part of a plan to close branches.
She said a quick apology from Ms Vennells would not be enough to fix the huge injustice. Marion added: “[She] has to take some responsibility for what was happening. Weren’t these things discussed at board meetings? If she isn’t going to take responsibility, who will?”
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