[News] Post Office Scandal -

[Thunder Bolt]

She won’t be reading NSC or the comments in The Mirror or Guardian. Instead praying to our saviour.

Even that move was tainted by her ambition. Starting as a priest, her aim was to become Bishop of zlondon.

 

[raymondo]

Even that move was tainted by her ambition. Starting as a priest, her aim was to become Bishop of zlondon.

Indeed...to become untouchable somehow

 

[bhafc99]

E

… to become Bishop of zlondon.

“zlondon” is perfect, sounds even more evil!

 

[Eric the meek]

One commentator said there wasn't a defining 'gotcha' moment.

But for her to claim that from 2007 to 2013, she didn't know that the Post Office carried out its own prosecutions with 100 dedicated staff, and that there were no bugs in Horizon, is beyond absurd.

If by some divine miracle of hers that she really wasn't aware of those things, then she should still be prosecuted for being so incomprehensibly unaware of people's lives being destroyed while she was CEO.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

I find it unbelievable when senior people use the “I’m not an IT expert” or similar line. Your staff maintain a set of accounts. Can someone from outside come in and add their own transactions without your staff knowing. It’s that simple.

There needs to be a few prosecutions.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

And I remember reading about Horizon in Computer Weekly back in the day. There won’t have been many reading it then that didn’t think “it’s the computer system”.

 

[GT49er]

One commentator said there wasn't a defining 'gotcha' moment.

But for her to claim that from 2007 to 2013, she didn't know that the Post Office carried out its own prosecutions with 100 dedicated staff, and that there were no bugs in Horizon, is beyond absurd.

If by some divine miracle of hers that she really wasn't aware of those things, then she should still be prosecuted for being so incomprehensibly unaware of people's lives being destroyed while she was CEO.

Odds that she'll get off on the grounds that complete incompetence isn't a crime?

 

[Thunder Bolt]

And I remember reading about Horizon in Computer Weekly back in the day. There won’t have been many reading it then that didn’t think “it’s the computer system”.

Computer Weekly published the story before anybody else, even Private Eye.

 

[Eric the meek]

Odds that she'll get off on the grounds that complete incompetence isn't a crime?

There needs to be blood-letting. Even if she did apologise 6 times, and cried 4 times.

 

[GT49er]

There needs to be blood-letting. Even if she did apologise 6 times, and cried 4 times.

Oh I agree. But how often in the real world does justice come to the rich and powerful?

 

[Eric the meek]

Oh I agree. But how often in the real world does justice come to the rich and powerful?

Indeed. The authorities will be crawling all over her answers, but as a layman, I am finding it difficult to pinpoint anywhere where she incriminated herself.

Perhaps this wasn't the right time or vehicle to do this.

 

[Bodian]

One commentator said there wasn't a defining 'gotcha' moment.

But for her to claim that from 2007 to 2013, she didn't know that the Post Office carried out its own prosecutions with 100 dedicated staff, and that there were no bugs in Horizon, is beyond absurd.

If by some divine miracle of hers that she really wasn't aware of those things, then she should still be prosecuted for being so incomprehensibly unaware of people's lives being destroyed while she was CEO.

No - there wasn't a gotcha moment, and I watched quite a lot of it. But what happened really was a constant chipping away at the narrative she was portraying. Almost everything she was confronted with she 'explained' away with comments like 'I can see how it reads now, but that's not what I meant at the time', and 'I can see how it can be taken that way, but...' (to which the obvious follow-up question which was left unsaid as it didn't need to be asked, was 'if you can see it could be read that way, then it probably was read that way').

Another telling moment was a file note she had made about her chief lawyer, which said something along the lines of the lawyer letting her legal professional standards come above the needs of the business. In other words - the lawyer was telling her something she didn't want to hear, and was bad for the PO, instead of being a 'yes person'. The lawyer left relatively soon after - wonder why?

The end impression was that she must have known what was happening, and did indeed lead by example - the example being to treat the postmasters concerns with disdain.

 

[Weststander]

Indeed. The authorities will be crawling all over her answers, but as a layman, I am finding it difficult to pinpoint anywhere where she incriminated herself.

Perhaps this wasn't the right time or vehicle to do this.

It goes beyond the matters in this questioning. For example, where they compelled folk to pay back all ‘losses’, yet knew Horizon had key bugs on financial recording and remote access by bad actors was possible, that’s fraud. Directors and senior officials have very onerous responsibilities in statute and years of case law. They can’t use the excuse I’m just an unknowing lay person.

 

[Bodian]

It goes beyond the matters in this questioning. For example, where they compelled folk to pay back all ‘losses’, yet knew Horizon had key bugs on financial recording and remote access by bad actors was possible, that’s fraud. Directors and senior officials have very onerous responsibilities in statute and years of case law. They can’t use the excuse I’m just an unknowing lay person.

Not only did they compel the sub-postmasters to pay 'back' to the PO money that they hadn't actually taken in the first place, they then received bonuses because of it. That's straight theft from the sub-postmasters to the investigators / executives.

 

[abc]

Odds that she'll get off on the grounds that complete incompetence isn't a crime?

Why not, Boris Johnson has

 

[GT49er]

Why not, Boris Johnson has

Yes, my point entirely. Although suspect Boris is a bad example; his detractors like to think he's thick but he is intelligent enough to play along with this and fool them with his Boris dim-but-nice ha-ha jolly good persona.

 

[The Clamp]

I know this won’t be a popular thought judging by some of the extreme comments on here, but I worry about the Lord of the Flies type ‘judge, jury and executioner’ mantra that has taken hold. Vennels clearly has a massive amount of culpability and must face the legal consequences but if the current hounding of her leads to yet another suicide associated with this tragic saga, I for one will not be celebrating.

I wouldn’t shed a single tear if she topped herself.

I’d rather see her go to prison but I’d be fine with either.

 

[timbha]

I wouldn’t shed a single tear if she topped herself.

I’d rather see her go to prison but I’d be fine with either.

Really?

 

[amexer]

And I remember reading about Horizon in Computer Weekly back in the day. There won’t have been many reading it then that didn’t think “it’s the computer system”.

Mike Young Head of PO IT rubished this report. Why has he not appeared at the enquiry ?

 

[Bodian]

Mike Young Head of PO IT rubished this report. Why has he not appeared at the enquiry ?

They can't find him - no-one seems to know where he is.