Key Points
- Former nurse Lucy Letby is serving 15 life sentences after being convicted of murdering babies at the hospital she worked.
- A panel of international experts says a review of medical evidence doesn’t support that the babies were murdered.
- An appeal was already rejected but her lawyer says this new detail could prove no crime was committed.
Lucy Letby is known as the United Kingdom’s most prolific serial child killer in modern history.
Having been handed fifteen consecutive life sentences for the and the attempted killing of another seven, she was widely expected to die in jail.
However specialist analysis of the evidence used to convict the London nurse have raised doubts around whether Letby attempted to kill any babies at all.
Unexpected baby deaths in hospital
The case dates back to a period from 2015 to 2016 at the Countess of Chester Hospital in the English city of Chester.
Doctors oversaw a rise in the number of babies who had died or unexpectedly collapsed at the hospital but were unable to find a medical explanation.
Lucy Letby, a former nurse at Countess of Cheshire Hospital, was convicted of murdering and attempting to murder babies in the hospital’s neonatal ward between 2015 and 2016. Source: Getty / Handout
Police were alerted and began an investigation which led to the arrest of Letby in July 2018, who was in her late 20s at the time.
She was later charged in November 2020.
What was the evidence in Letby’s trial?
The United Kingdom’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) wrote in an online summary of the case in August 2023 that Letby’s “intention was to kill the babies while deceiving her colleagues into believing there was a natural cause”.
“The prosecution was able to present evidence of Letby using various methods to attack babies, including: the injection of air and insulin into their bloodstream; the infusion of air into their gastrointestinal tract; force feeding an overdose of milk or fluids; impact-type trauma,” the summary read.
The CPS outlined including medical records, staff rosters and handwritten notes and diaries.
It noted several medical documents featured falsified notes made by Letby, some with amended timings, which it said was “in an attempt to distance herself from incidents where babies had suddenly become severely unwell”.
Police had found handwritten notes during their investigation which included phrases such as, “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them”; “I am evil I did this”; and “today is your birthday and you are not here and I am so sorry for that”, according to CPS.
Letby has maintained her innocence and her trial did not hear any evidence that anyone ever saw her harming a baby.
Letby’s convictions increased
Letby faced a 10 month trial in Manchester Crown Court, which concluded in August 2023.
She was initially found guilty of seven counts of murder and six of attempted murder and sentenced to 14 consecutive terms of life in prison.
In 2024, she was found guilty of trying to kill another baby in the neonatal unit where she worked, in a retrial that saw the term increased to 15 consecutive life sentences.
Medical experts cast doubt on evidence
Last week, a report was released reviewing the cases of the 14 babies Letby had been found guilty of harming.
Dr Shoo Lee led the analysis conducted by 14 experts from around the world. Source: Getty / Leon Neal
Put together by a panel of 14 neonatal and paediatric specialists from around the world, it found there was no medical evidence to support wrongdoing and that instead, the deaths and injuries were the result of “natural causes or just bad medical care”.
University of Toronto emeritus professor and retired neonatologist Shoo Lee, who led the review told reporters at a press conference: “In our opinion, the medical evidence doesn’t support murder in any of these babies”.
“We hope the authorities will consider our findings seriously and accordingly, because you will not find a better panel of experts anywhere in the world,” Lee said.
A research paper published by Lee in 1989 was used by the prosecution’s leading expert witness in Letby’s trial to support a theory she had injected air into the bloodstream of babies.
However, Lee was not asked to give evidence at the trial and only became aware that his paper was used afterwards.
Experts point to problems at hospital
The report indicated there were unsafe delays in diagnosis and treatment at the Countess of Chester Hospital as well as poor resuscitation and intubation skills, poor supervision of junior doctors and a “lack of teamwork and trust between the health professionals.”
A press conference was held to present the new evidence regarding the convictions of Lucy Letby. Source: Getty / Leon Neal
The review also found staff were at times caring for babies “probably beyond their expected ability or designated level of care”.
Lee said infants deemed as high risk “should have been delivered and cared for at higher-level institutions”.
Professor of neonatal medicine at Imperial College London, Neena Modi, who was also part of the panel, said there were “plausible reasons” for the babies’ deaths.
“There was a combination of babies being delivered in the wrong place, delayed diagnosis, and inappropriate or absent treatment.”
What’s next in the Letby case?
The mother of a baby boy who Letby was convicted of trying to murder has reportedly described the review as a “publicity stunt” telling British media the families of the victims “already have the truth”.
However Letby’s lawyer Mark McDonald said new medical findings from the international experts “demolished” the case against her.
“If (the experts) are correct, no crime was committed,” he said.
He has submitted a preliminary application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which examines potential miscarriages of justice.
A spokesperson for the CCRC said it was not possible for the commission, whose job is not to determine guilt or innocence, to say how long its review would take.
In the wake of Letby’s conviction in 2023, the British government set up a public inquiry to examine how the murders went undetected and to review the hospital’s response to concerns raised by doctors about Letby before her arrest.
Cheshire Police are also carrying out two further investigations into Letby, and in December said they had questioned her about the deaths of other children.
British police said the guilty verdict against Letby was reached after a lengthy trial and following more than a month of jury deliberations.
“The case was subsequently reviewed by the Court of Appeal, where three judges unanimously rejected Letby’s claim that the evidence was flawed and dismissed her leave to appeal on all grounds,” it said in a statement.
With additional reporting from Reuters.
