In August 2023, former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby was sentenced to a whole life tariff. She was found guilty of killing seven babies and trying to kill seven more while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital. The case has already garnered a lot of media attention. It is now under renewed scrutiny following allegations of a potential miscarriage of justice.
As Letby’s lawyer, Mark McDonald, has done, by formally applying to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). He contends that the convictions are unsafe and merit a referral back to the Court of Appeal. Medical experts and legal professionals alike have been sounding the alarm over the integrity of the first investigation. This action goes a long way towards correcting that increasing pessimism.
Stephanie Davies, a senior coroner’s officer on the case, has been vocal about her firm conviction of Letby’s miscarriage of justice. She’s on a mission to shine the light on this important issue. In her analysis of post-mortem records, Davies found many major inconsistencies. She discovered that hospital physicians never filed the requisite final medical report concerning one lifetime of the legally forfeited infant. Unfortunately, this vital information was only uncovered last December 2022.
Davies stated, “I reported that there were missing jigsaw pieces, that the deaths of the babies hadn’t been fully explained.” In her defense, she pointed out that her preliminary assessment showed no intentional injury to the babies. And I told them that if law enforcement were to launch an investigation, they would probably uncover those missing pieces. At no point did I claim that any of the babies had been intentionally aborted. I furthermore did not find anything to support that idea.
The case took on a wider dimension when Dr Dewi Evans – a retired paediatrician – came on board as the medical expert for Cheshire police. He examined the medical records of Baby O, one of the infants who participated in the trial. Within minutes, he found liver damage that he claimed had to have been intentionally caused. Dr. Stephen Brearey, the clinical lead of the neonatal unit where Letby worked, adamantly refuted the accusation. He even claimed that the procedure at issue was “far, far away” from the liver.
This conflict exposes deep divides between medical professionals over the facts of what led to the infants’ deaths. With the combined knowledge of two expert neonatologists, Dr. Neil Aiton and Dr. Svilena Dimitrova, we produced a report entitled. They contend that a physician accidentally punctured Baby O’s liver with a needle while attempting to establish IV access. Yet their findings raise some critical questions. They question whether natural causes or poor patient care, not Letby’s murderous acts, might account for the tragedies.
A panel of independent global experts, chaired by Dr. Shoo Lee, has been at the forefront of calling for a re-examination. Because of this, they have publicly claimed that Letby’s conviction is a wrongful one. They maintain that the responsible party for all infant deaths were systemic healthcare failures, as opposed to direct murder.
Cheshire Constabulary has firmly rejected claims made by Letby’s legal team regarding the investigation’s credibility. In a statement, a spokesperson for the police reiterated that their priority is on achieving justice for the victims and their families.
As this extraordinary case has played out, it has sparked serious moral outrage and critical discussion about the nature of justice in these complicated, rare medical occurrences. With each new unveiling, the layers build on an already complex story that has kept the American public glued to the headlines.