Paula Vennells Apologises To Victims Of Post Office Scandal At Start Of Mammoth Inquiry Hearing

Transcript

00:00 I would just like to say, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to do this in person,

00:05 how sorry I am for all that sub-postmasters and their families and others have suffered

00:12 as a result of all of the matters that the Inquiries has been looking into for so long.

00:17 I followed and listened to all of the human impact statements and I was very affected

00:26 by them.

00:27 I remember listening to one postmaster, whose name I noted, who said that he would like

00:33 somebody to go and stand outside his old post office with him so he could tell them exactly

00:38 what he'd been through.

00:39 I would do that.

00:41 I am very, very sorry.

00:43 I would also like to repeat the apology which is in my witness statement to Alan Bates,

00:49 to Ron Warmington and Ian Henderson from Second Sight, and to Lord Arbuthnot.

00:56 And those I worked with made their work so much harder and I am very, very sorry for

01:00 that.

01:02 My third apology is really about today because I will answer the questions truthfully and

01:09 I'm very aware that they will be difficult to listen to for you and for me and I ask

01:14 your understanding in advance of that.

01:18 Thank you.

01:19 Thank you.

01:20 I should say there's going to be a fire alarm at ten o'clock and we're just going to sit

01:25 here all together and listen to it and then carry on afterwards.

01:31 So some general issues, if I may.

01:36 Miss Fennells, in the light of the information that you tell us in your witness statement

01:41 you weren't given, in the light of the documents that you tell us in your witness statement

01:47 that you didn't see, and in the light of the assurances that you tell us about in your

01:54 witness statement that you were given by post office staff, do you think you're the unluckiest

02:02 CEO in the United Kingdom?

02:11 I was given much information and as the inquiry has heard, there was information that I wasn't

02:22 given and others didn't receive as well.

02:25 One of my reflections on all of this is that I was too trusting.

02:33 I did probe and I did ask questions and I'm disappointed where information wasn't shared

02:47 and it has been a very important time for me, as I have gone through all of the documentation

02:54 that I've seen since, to plug some of those gaps and to remind me what I did see and perhaps

03:00 hadn't remembered.

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