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Post Office latest: Lawyer deeply sorry for sub-postmasters' 'suffering', inquiry hears - BBC News Post Office latest: Lawyer deeply sorry for sub-postmasters' 'suffering', inquiry hears - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
Peter Ruddick Aujard is shown a document which appears to show Paula Vennells "resilling" from what he calls the executive committee's view over prosecutions of sub-postmasters.
Business reporter "My recollections was the executive committee were in favour of ceasing prosecutions entirely but when the matter was discussed at the committee, Paula interjected or made the comment that the proposal should not be taken as what I had intended," Aujard says.
When there is a handover in a job there is always a risk that things fall between the cracks. A risk that increases when someone is replacing a person leaving abruptly or under a cloud. Aujard adds Vennells felt Post Office should continue to take some prosecutions rather than cease altogether.
Is that what happened to the so-called Clarke advice? An external legal opinion that the former expert evidence from Gareth Jenkins was "fatally undermined".
This morning, we heard Susan Crichton admit she should have done more to raise this advice to the Post Office board. However, there was "a lot going on" with her departure from the organisation.
Her successor Chris Aujard knew about the 'Jenkins problem' from day two in the job. The closest he got to telling the board was a document referring to "associated issues".
Why did he not raise it more strongly? He says he assumed issues pre-dating him were already being resolved.
Is that credible? That is for the inquiry to decide. But it is a reminder that the very everyday issue of job handovers can have a big impact in a scandal like this.
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