The convictions of neonatal nurse Lucy Letby in 2023 and 2024 for the murder and attempted murder of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital are now looking increasingly unsafe.
A new book casting doubt on the Letby prosecution is due to come out on July 9th. This week, the Mail on Sunday’s Political Editor Glen Owen flagged up the book by investigative author Christopher Morris. Owen wrote:
Anyone who believes the police case against Lucy Letby “should have their head examined”, a medical expert has insisted in a new book about the neonatal nurse serving 15 whole life sentences for murder and attempted murder.
After interviewing more than 60 specialists for Reasonable Doubt: Examining The Case Of Lucy Letby, investigative author Christopher Morris raises questions about controversial claims that Letby poisoned the babies with insulin.
Owen pointed out that the juries in Letby’s two trials reached their verdicts despite the absence of forensic or CCTV evidence and the lack of a convincing motive. Independent reviews later found that the neonatal unit was understaffed and working beyond capacity.
He wrote:
Over the past two years, the Mail on Sunday has highlighted how Letby was convicted on the basis of contested statistical probabilities and increasingly disputed theories about how she might have inflicted harm on the babies.
In the book, Morris writes:
A very different story than the one set out in court is emerging and it is important this story is told, both to right a possible miscarriage of justice and to highlight that serious mistakes made in the management and care of infants may not have been properly addressed.
Morris quotes neonatologist Professor Shoo Lee, who convened an international panel of medical experts to produce fresh reports about the evidence cited in court, saying: “Anyone who reads the reports and still thinks that Lucy Letby is guilty should have their head examined.”
Owen reported:
Last month, this newspaper revealed internal documents from the Countess of Chester showing managers were concerned about the ‘bullying’ behaviour of two doctors towards Letby after she highlighted apparent failures of care in their neonatal unit, triggering her removal from the wards.
After Letby launched a grievance procedure against Dr Stephen Brearey and Dr Ravi Jayaram, the hospital found in her favour – but by then the doctors had contacted police with their concerns about her. The juries in the resulting trials were unaware of this.
Owen’s story flagged up Peter Hitchens’s June 14th MoS column headed: ‘A top doctor says anyone who still thinks Letby is guilty needs their head examined. So why must she continue to suffer?’
Hitchens first expressed his doubts back in September 2023, soon after Letby’s first conviction.
He wrote:
Now I must tell you that a number of voices, apparently expert, have been raised by lawyers and scientists who are afraid there may have been a miscarriage of justice. I am not qualified to judge them, but if they are right there are flaws in the prosecution of Lucy Letby, in important claims made about the actions she supposedly took.
There are also questions about the general state of the unit in which she worked. A body calling itself ‘Science on Trial’ has produced an interesting analysis of the case that I find quite disturbing. Recently, Dr David Livermore, a retired Professor of Medical Microbiology, has also expressed doubts. In an article for the Daily Sceptic website, he says: “No one who cares about justice should be comfortable with this case.”
Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.
Discussion
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If this was a set-up to frame Letby, a simple minion, for the failings of the unit resulting in the deaths of infants, someone with inside knowledge and exceptional contacts at the highest institutional levels would be required.
It is pretty disgraceful that this travesty could occur under the all seeing eye of the hospital chair, Sir Duncan Kirkbride Nichol CBE (born 30 May 1941). He is a British hospital administrator who was the third Chief Executive of the National Health Service Management Executive from 1989 to 1994.
He was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, to James Nichol and Mabel Kirkbride. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School and the University of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland. He joined the NHS in 1963 as a graduate trainee, and worked his way up in St Thomas’s Hospital and Manchester Royal Infirmary, from senior administrative assistant to regional general manager of the Mersey Regional Health Authority. He has been Chairman of the Academy for Healthcare Science, Her Majesty’s Courts Service, Skills for Justice, the Parole Board for England and Walesand Synergy Healthcare. He is a director of Deltex Medical Group.
He was a non-executive director of the Christie Hospital from 2008 and deputy chairman from 2009 until 2012, when he was appointed Chair of the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. He announced his retirement in… Read more »
I’ml late on this, but.
Sally Clarke. RIP.
The jury hadn’t learned from the Sally Clark case, probably because they weren’t aware of it. It was the first thing I thought of. Even after she was cleared, many in the medical profession only had sympathy for Meadows’ “mistake”. I found that sickening.
I have never read of a case with more reasonable doubt than this one. I am convinced this was and continues to be a grave miscarriage of justice.
As an evangelical journalist Julian Mann should investigate Dr John Gibbs ex-consultant at COCH who also pointed the finger at Lucy and gave evidence against her…..on Netflix now says he has a tiny tiny tiny bit of doubt….doubt he did not express in court….since he has now given up medicine and gone into the church its time he comes to confession. In the case of baby M he treated the baby for an entirely different condition from what the two ‘experts’ said were the cause of that baby’s collapse yet he didn’t have the guts to tell the court when he gave evidence. Perhaps Julian Mann could ask him why?
There appeared to be no evidence that wasn’t contentious in some way…. reading the press reports of course… not easy to call. The balance of probabilities seemed against conviction, but her defence seems to have been very poor at challenging evidence that was only opinion.
For those on Facebook, try googling Dr Stephen Brearley. Liver damage Baby O.
It looks like this poor nurse was the fall guy by some very incompetent “. And you people think you live in a democracy? More like an antiquated caste system where peoole like Lucy Letby pay the price for your caste system. Why would anyone want to live on the Uk?
Letby’s conviction is disturbingly similar to the convictions in the Post Office scandal in that if crimes took place it’s almost certain that the people found guilty committed the crimes. Letby’s appeal is based on the fact that the babies weren’t deliberately harmed/killed (unless by management failures) rather than it being a case of the wrong person having been convicted.
This makes Letby’s trial and those of the subpost masters different from most criminal trials where is obvious beyond reasonable doubt that a crime has been committed and the trial is to determine whether or not the person on trial is the one wot dun it. In complex cases where guilt or innocence is dependent on whether or not a crime has taken place juries might not be qualified to reach the correct decision. Since trial by jury is a fundamental right that shouldn’t be messed with a solution in these types of cases might be to have a panel of judges or independent experts hear the evidence relating to whether or not a crime has been committed. If they conclude that there has been a crime it could then go to a jury trial to determine if the accused… Read more »
If she gets out, then she will be due a massive pay day. Once she has finished with them all.
Meantime this now 35 year old woman has had her life totally ruined, single no children and time passing. She is the victim of misogynistic bullying by the consultants at COCH and the so called experts who crucified her in court. YET, the General Medical Council refuse to investigate the dozens of complaints against these doctors and the Cheshire police ignore evidence that has been sent to them regarding perjury and gross negligence manslaughter. There is evidence that the police have started to victimise people who spoke out against the convictions at the Nineteen Nurses conference at Manchester University in March. The police and prosecutors clearly don’t want to admit that they have been completely conned by all these good doctors so we have to hope that the CCRC will do their job and not bow to judicial and political pressure, but lets not hold our breaths on that one. Meanwhile for Lucy another day in hell for something she clearly did not do….money will never compensate for that.
I must admit the (first) trial completely passed me by. I only got wind of it when I caught the sentencing on the news on telly in the break room at work.
I immediately read a couple of (just MSM, not the many very detailed, independent investigative articles) reports on the case, and my instant thought was “no way has that been proved beyond reasonable doubt!”
No eyewitness, no evidence, no motive. How can a person be sentenced to die in prison PURELY on circumstansial evidence?!
I have since read a LOT about the case and 100% believe it was an orchestrated stitch up.
A great British institutional tradition ;close ranks, circle the wagons, pick a scapegoat.
💯
My experience, too. Hearing about the sentence was the first time I heard of Lucy Letby, then thought I’d look at the details and after 30 minutes thought, “No way! That conviction is – at the very least – unsafe!”
I have never believed Lucy Letby is guilty of anything and every day that comes closer to being confirmed. Time she had proper justice.
Yes, but why is she still in prison when the evidence is overwhelmingly in her favour?
What is anybody doing about getting her out of there?
Because the NHS picked the scapegoat for its shit hospital, and that scapegoat will rot in prison for the “greater good”
NHS management will always do its utmost to cover up its own failings. There’s nothing peculiar or unlikely about that, organisations invariably develop protective, self-justifying, structures and mechanisms.
Amen
Her convictions are being examined by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, so it’s clear that the authorities know that something stinks.
How long it will take to quash the convictions is difficult to say, but Lucy Letby has a lot of supporters including Sir David Davis MP and many others.
Because she’s white?
Nailed it, Gunner!