Jo Hamilton, a former subpostmaster who was wrongly convicted, questioned how Ms Vennells “can look herself in the mirror” after hundreds of innocent men and women were prosecuted during her years in charge.
She also criticised Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who was Postal Affairs Minister at the time but insists he was misled by executives.
Ms Hamilton, now a part-time cleaner, claimed he “must have known” at some point and yet still refused to meet those campaigning for justice in what has been labelled the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history.
Her character was played by Bafta-winning Monica Dolan, 54, in the four-part ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
Mother-of-two Ms Hamilton, now 66, was accused of stealing £36,000 from a shop in South Warnborough, Hants, and eventually pleaded guilty to false accounting for fear of going to jail.
However, her conviction was quashed in 2021 after she was found to be a victim of the Horizon Post Office Scandal, where a faulty accounting system led to more than 700 sub-postmasters being prosecuted.
Ms Vennells, CEO of the Post Office for seven years from 2012 and a one-time Anglican priest, was awarded a CBE in 2019 for services to the organisation. In 2021, she apologised for suffering caused after 39 subpostmasters’ convictions were quashed.
But the ITV drama has piled on the pressure for her to be stripped of her honour.
Ms Hamilton said: “You’d think anyone with a moral compass would give it back. I can’t believe she is a vicar. She didn’t physically prosecute us. I’m not sure when she knew, but when she did find out, why didn’t she say let’s draw a line and sort it out? But no, they fought us and dragged it out for 10 years – that’s the crime.” She said that Ms Vennells did not appear to have the ethics of a vicar.
Ms Hamilton added: “How can she look at herself in the mirror? I don’t understand it.”
She also criticised Sir Ed’s refusal to meet campaigners, led by the wrongly prosecuted Alan Bates, 68, who himself turned down an OBE. Ms Hamilton said of Sir Ed: “I just find it disgusting. Even if he didn’t know, why didn’t he meet with Alan? They just ignored all of it.
“As a minister, you must be responsible for something – it’s just awful.”
Ms Hamilton says that she’s in awe at the overwhelmingly positive response to the ITV series.
