TELL ME WHY
Widow’s plea to disgraced Post Office boss
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 allegations that he stole £46,000 from his branch.
He died of a brain tumour, still tormented by the court conviction that he never deserved.
For the next three days, former Post Office chief executive vennells is due to be quizzed as part of the inquiry into the Horizon scandal.
Marion, 82, said: “i want to be able to look her in the eye and see what she’s thinking.
“i think i’ll be angry more than anything. i want to know why it all happened. Was it for profit? Was it ignorance?
“She’s not the only one who was in the wrong but she did know what was going on.
“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 and accept that she did know.”
vennells, 65, held the top job at the Post Office from 2012 to 2019.
As she gives evidence to the inquiry, lawyers will seek to find out exactly what she knew during her tenure.
Peter, a former police officer, was in charge of the Jesmond Post Office in Newcastle in 2008 when the allegations were made against him.
When his case went to court in 2010, he was offered a plea bargain. the Post Office said they would drop the theft charge if he pled guilty to false accounting. Knowing what a term in jail would be like for him as a former policeman, he took the deal and was given a suspended jail sentence.
Peter died in 2015 aged 74. His family said his conviction was finally overturned six years after his death.