Post Office Horizon scandal: Paula Vennells handing back her CBE is too little, too late for victims

But such is the speed at which this ugliest of stories is developing that at around midday yesterday the former chief executive of the Post Office, at the helm when hundreds of innocent people were not only accused of crimes they didn’t commit, but were also persecuted by a demented Establishment hell-bent on protecting its reputation, no matter the human cost, declared that she would hand back her CBE.

Paula Vennells has long been accused of not wholly committing to investigating properly the truth behind the failings of Fujitsu’s Horizon system. And Ms Vennells cannot for a second plead even a scintilla of ignorance, for she was, as chief executive from 2012 to 2019, the postmistress-in-chief during the period of time when the rump of the 3,500 accusations were made.

Her opening gambit to the statement she made will incense those fighting for justice for so long. “I continue to support and focus on co-operating with the inquiry...” she said, though for those sceptical of the effort Ms Vennells has conjured from within herself for such endeavour thus far, any continuation of as much will have to come with as much added gusto as it needs transparency.

And as for the sorrow she expressed towards sub-postmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart and in some cases taken from them, wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system, it is too little, too late.