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Post Office inquiry live updates: Angela van den Bogerd giving evidence for second day - BBC News Post Office inquiry live: Angela van den Bogerd shown letter blaming PO for postmaster's death - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
Beer and van den Bogerd are still talking about an email sent by former sub-postmaster Martin Griffiths's daughter, Lauren, in which she blames the Post Office for her father's death. Questioning remains on the money that was given to Martin Griffiths's family, on the condition of keeping quiet about his death in 2013.
Griffiths died by suicide in 2013, after being accused of having a £100,000 shortfall in his accounts. "[Confidentiality] was important for Rodric," Angela van den Bogerd says, adding that she wasn't involved in the initial settlement agreement.
Beer asks why £140,000 was determined the appropriate figure to offer Griffiths' family in the wake of his death (there's more detail on that in our last post). Rodric refers to Rodric Williams, a Post Office lawyer, who van den Bogerd say says was involved in Griffiths's wife, Gina, agreeing to "staged payments" in return for her "maintaining confidentiality".
Van den Bogerd says Griffiths had registered his interest for the payment prior to his death, and that it was not intended to be a payment for his loss of life. She goes on to say she met Lauren, Griffiths's wife Gina and his mother following his death - and that she offered to give as much support as she could. Pressed by Beer, she says it was Williams's idea to insist the Griffiths family wouldn't get any more money if they didn't keep quiet.
She says she was concerned about the financial pressure on the family, and she was trying to facilitate a way for that payment to be made. She also says the payment was subject to a non-disclosure agreement. At this point, inquiry chair Wyn Williams intervenes to clarify that it was Williams who wanted to include a clause to this effect. Van den Bogerd confirms that's what she means.
Beer puts it to van den Bogerd that Griffiths's family had a live claim with independent investigators Second Sight, and asks if this would be on condition of dropping it, to which she says "that was the broader piece" of the so-called network transformation payment. She says that she approved the clause Williams added because she was advised to, adding: "My concern at the time was to facilitating that payment to Gina. I felt that I had done as much as I could to help the family financially."
"That's just word soup", Beer responds.
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