Post Office victims give two-word message to Paula Vennells amid criminal complaint

A group of subpostmasters and mistresses has called on Paula Vennells to come clean. The scandal-ridden former Post Office head, is being pressed by the victims demanding an explanation for her involvement in the Horizon debacle.

Seema Misra, a mother-of-two of who was eight weeks pregnant in 2010, received 15-month jail time on charges of false accounting and theft, giving birth with an ankle monitor attached. Commenting on Paula Vennells' tears, she stated: "I wish I could cry. I don't have any more tears left. I've been to prison without evidence. Yet Vennells and the others have so much evidence and so many facts against them. I don't know what the police are waiting for."

She also added: "I know Paula and the other bosses are all hiding behind the inquiry. That is wrong. They won't be able to do that forever."

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According to public inquiry results from 2023, it was revealed that struggling Asian subpostmasters contacting the helpline were labelled as 'another Patel scamming'.

Misra further shared: "It has been extremely painful. I've heard lots of terrible things during this inquiry. To call every Asian subpostmaster 'another Patel' is so disgusting. They are racist and corrupt.", reports the Mirror.

Christopher Head, aged 36, faced allegations for a discrepancy amounting to £88,000. Though the criminal charges were withdrawn after six months, he suffered legal persecution for five years, resulting in him losing his house and everything he possessed.

He commented that Vennells appeared better prepared on her second day in court but "her recollection of events is completely contradicted by what the documentation shows. There was a moment when she said: 'Unsafe witness is not a term I would use.' But it's there in an email she sent."

Chirag Sidhpura, 40, who lost his business and home after paying out over £57,000 from his own pocket to avoid prosecution, stated after Vennells' initial evidence session: "I'll be pushing for a prosecution. She presided over the people who came for me. The investigators who used bullying tactics against me threatening me to either pay up or go to prison."

Ex-postmaster Harjinder Butoy, 48, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, wrongfully convicted of theft of £208,000 back in 2007 and imprisoned for a year and half. It took him 15 years to clear his name.

Following a harsh response he received from Vennells - an ordained minister - whom he contacted via his MP, he said: "She insisted 'the Horizon System is 100% robust. If Harjinder has a problem, tell him to find a solicitor and try to take us to court.' It was like she was in the mafia."

"Back then we knew we had no recourse there was nothing we could do. No solicitors would touch the case."

Echoing calls for criminal charges from other victims, he stated: "I still can't get my head around all the lies."

He expressed his desire to see Vennells "behind bars". He stated that despite her spending five months under legal training, she is.

The individual, who endured a harrowing 18-year ordeal after being wrongly imprisoned, expressed their ongoing distress: "I wonder how she'd cope if she'd been through the last 18 years of hell I've been through. The time I spent jailed. It took 15 years just to clear my name. I didn't care about the money, they took my good name," he said.

Jess Kaur, an ex-postmistress and mother of three from the West Midlands, suffered a mental breakdown following false accusations of embezzling £11,000 from her branch. Although charges were dismissed in 2009, the trauma led her to attempt suicide and resulted in her being sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

Recounting the difficulty of attending court, she stated: "After the first day of her testimony, I said I couldn't come back it was so painful, but I knew I had to. I have to keep strong."