Lesley Sewell struggled to contain her emotions at the beginning of Thursday's Horizon IT inquiry proceedings, stumbling over her words as she gave the affirmation ahead of giving evidence.
The Post Office's former head of IT wept as she was sworn into the Horizon inquiry - before telling invigilators she blocked former CEO Paula Vennells' phone number after she allegedly sought help with 'avoiding an independent inquiry'.
Ms Sewell told the probe in her witness statement that she was contacted by Ms Vennells four times in 2020 and 2021 - adding that she eventually blocked her number because she 'did not feel comfortable with her contacting me'. 'On March 8, 2020, Paula Vennells emailed my personal email account from a personal email account of hers.
Ms Sewell, who went on to become chief information officer before resigning: 'Paula contacted me on four occasions in total. I recall blocking her number after the last call as I did not feel comfortable with her contacting me.' Those words were also linked with arrows to the phrase 'evidence unsafe', followed by 'Post Office knew it was unsafe' and 'public affront' - which appeared to be under the heading '23rd Court of App', referencing the Court of Appeal case which quashed 39 wrongful convictions.
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