Giving evidence to the inquiry last week, Mr Davies accepted that in July 2013, he had advised Ms Vennells not to apologise to sub-postmasters.
Writing in his witness statement, the communications professional, who left the Post Office in 2019, said: “Because I did not have access to all the facts, I clearly played a part in prolonging the pain and injustice for those innocent people who were wrongly accused or whose convictions were unsafe. I am deeply sorry for that.”
Mr Davies declined to provide a response to The Telegraph’s request for comment.
Horizon victim Seema Misra, who was eight weeks pregnant when she was handed a 15-month sentence in November 2010 after pleading guilty to false accounting and being convicted of theft by a jury, said the emails were further proof that Ms Vennells should have never accepted her CBE in the first place.
Mrs Misra, who began running a branch in West Byfleet, Surrey, in 2005 and was prosecuted over an alleged shortfall of £74,000 told The Telegraph: “At this time, she was the goodie and I was the baddie in the media and everywhere at the time.
“It’s not ethical at all. At a time when sub-postmasters like myself were suffering, the people who put us in all of this mess were celebrating.”
Mrs Misra added: “She knew she was in the wrong then and she shouldn’t have accepted that CBE.”
‘Disturbing’ case files
Earlier this week, it emerged that Ms Vennells had described the cases of several Post Office prosecutions as “disturbing” more than a year before the business stopped pursuing sub-postmasters in the courts.
After being sent the case files of eight sub-postmasters by accountancy firm Second Sight, Ms Vennells wrote to Ron Warmington, its director: “I have just read through the attachments. Apart from finding them very disturbing [I defy anyone not to], I am now even better informed.”
In the email obtained by ITV News, Ms Vennells added: “I take this very seriously.”
Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative MP, told the broadcaster that he believed the email would “come to be seen as the smoking gun that is the cover-up that has taken place at the Post Office”.