Paula Vennells broke down and cried as she gave evidence to the Horizon IT inquiry on Wednesday 22 May. The disgraced ex-Post Office boss admitted she “made mistakes” but denied there was a conspiracy to cover up the scandal. Ms Vennells started crying as it was put to her by Jason Beer KC that she misled MPs in 2012 about the Post Office’s 100 per cent success rate with convictions in cases involving the Horizon system. He pointed out that several accused postmasters had been acquitted by a jury, having blamed Horizon for the cause of money losses, by the time she spoke to parliamentarians. “I didn’t know that, and I’m incredibly sorry that happened to those people and to so many others,” Ms Vennells said, through tears.