How’s this for a plot in the Lucy Letby saga: according to a panel of the world’s top neonatal experts, there is ‘no evidence’ to prove that the 35-year-old former nurse murdered any babies.
Lucy Letby is currently serving 15 whole-life orders for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of seven others in her care at the Countess of Chester Hospital, but has always protested her innocence.
A team of the world’s top 14 neonatalists have now completed an in-depth analysis of the deaths and review of the medical evidence in the case, and concluded “we did not find any murders”, as Letby’s legal team submitted their findings to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
In fact, in the case of each of the seven deaths and attempted murders, the panel found death or injury was due to natural causes or errors in medical care.
Dr. Shoo Lee, who assembled the panel and led the review, presented the findings at a press conference led by Letby’s lawyers and Conservative MP Sir David Davis, who described her convictions as “one of the major injustices of modern times”.
Dr Lee said: “In summary, ladies and gentlemen, we did not find any murders. In all cases, death or injury were deemed to be natural causes or just bad medical care.”
Letby’s lawyer, Mark McDonald, said: “The reason why Lucy Letby was convicted was because of the medical evidence that was presented to the jury. That today has been demolished.”
He called for her case to be urgently referred to the Court of Appeal, adding: “There is overwhelming evidence that the conviction is unsafe. If Dr Shoo Lee is correct then no crime was committed.”
Dr Shoo Lee, who co-authored a 1989 academic paper on air embolism in babies which was cited by prosecuters, said his research had been falsely used to convict Lucy Letby.
He also criticised the care provided at Countess of Chester Hospital and said ‘if this was a hospital in Canada, it would be shut down. It would not be happening.’
Shocking stuff. Could it be that Lucy Letby was scapegoated as a child killer in order to cover up the horrific failures of the Countess of Chester hospital? One method Letby was accused of using was injecting air into the bloodstream, which caused an air embolism that blocked the blood supply and led to sudden death. As an expert on this sort of thing, Dr. Lee categorically states that none of the babies’ deaths involved air embolisms.
He said: ‘The notion that these cases are air embolisms because [the babies] collapse and because there were skin rashes has no basis in evidence. Let’s be clear about that.’
One baby was found to have died from thrombosis, the panel concluded, while another died from sepsis.
Infection and ‘traumatic delivery’ were believed to the causes of deaths for other babies, while there was ‘no proof’ that another died after having its oxygen tube dislodged, which was another method Letby was accused of using to kill the infants.
What an absolute head f***. What about all the investigators, forensics experts, and Lucy’s own colleagues, who were/are absolutely certain that Lucy Letby was responsible for these deaths? What about the damning handwritten notes found in Letby’s home at the time of her arrest? In the notes, she had literally written “I am evil I did this” and “I killed them on purpose because I am not good enough.” Not bulletproof evidence, sure, but certainly indicative of guilt.
It’s now up to the CCRC to review all the information and decide what happens next. Of course, just because these top 14 neonatalists found no evidence of murder, it doesn’t mean that another 14 top neonatalists wouldn’t. There were other experts involved in the original case who were considered by the court and jury to demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that Lucy Letby did murder those babies.
Personally, I still think she did it, even if the research/evidence may have been misused or misrepresented at the trial. But if the Court of Appeal finds Lucy Letby’s conviction unsafe? It will undoubtedly send shockwaves through the British justice system. What will life then look like for Lucy Letby if she’s found innocent?
To watch the moment serial killer fan Shaye Groves was arrested for stabbing her boyfriend to death, click HERE.