Lucy Letby was convicted in two trials in 2023 and 2024 of murdering seven infants and trying to homicide six others in her care on the Countess of Chester hospital in north-west England between 2015 and 2016.
She is at present serving 15 complete life sentences for the murders. However the case has been referred to as into query because of rising issues in regards to the skilled proof offered at her trial. Will she get a retrial? Right here’s what occurs subsequent.
Within the context of often cautious skilled opinion, the press convention held on February 4 2025 was extraordinary. A global panel of medical consultants investigating the medical proof towards Lucy Letby concluded that there have been different explanations for every of the deaths. They mentioned they discovered no proof of deliberate hurt, and imagine Letby didn’t homicide any infants.
The panel’s chair, Dr Shoo Lee, is a retired neonatal care skilled. His 1989 paper on air embolisms was closely relied on by the prosecution within the Letby trial and appeals. Nonetheless, Lee has beforehand mentioned that his analysis was misinterpreted at trial. On the press convention he mentioned, “we didn’t discover any murders. In all circumstances, dying or damage had been as a consequence of pure causes or simply unhealthy medical care.”
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The panel’s findings put the case in uncharted territory, given Letby’s very latest convictions and the persevering with public inquiry into the case.
The general public inquiry – the Thirlwall Inquiry into occasions on the Countess of Chester hospital – will function primarily based on the belief, following her convictions, that Letby is responsible. Letby’s barrister has referred to as for the inquiry to be halted pending the Felony Instances Assessment Fee (CCRC) evaluation of her case.
Regardless of the findings of the skilled panel, Letby’s launch or perhaps a retrial is certainly not imminent, not to mention assured. Letby has already had two purposes for depart to attraction refused. The grounds of attraction had been associated to what her defence argued had been errors in judicial determination making through the trial, somewhat than the medical proof. Nonetheless, which means the CCRC is the one route left open to Letby to problem her convictions.
Letby’s defence group confirmed {that a} preliminary utility has been made to the CCRC, with a full submission to observe. The CCRC investigates potential miscarriages of justice in England, Wales and Northern Eire.
The fee is anticipated to deal with Letby’s case as a precedence given the general public curiosity. However it’s nonetheless more likely to take at the least a 12 months to evaluation the appreciable proof earlier than a referral again to the Courtroom of Enchantment might even be thought-about.
What proof can be thought-about?
The CCRC goals to finish circumstances inside 12 months of receiving the applying. However the organisation has lately come underneath criticism over the way it dealt with the case of Andrew Malkinson, who was wrongly jailed for 17 years for against the law he didn’t commit.
When the CCRC considers the total utility, they’ve the ability to refer the case again to the Courtroom of Enchantment. So as to take action, the fee requires new proof or different related elements which might help a contemporary attraction.
The findings of the medical panel can be a part of the defence submission. The CCRC will resolve, with different elements, whether or not they represent contemporary grounds for an attraction. It’s notably compelling that the prosecution case relied on Dr Lee’s analysis, and but it’s partly his experience that has turn into a vital aspect of the defence.
To ship the case again for attraction, the CCRC would additionally have to conclude that there was a “actual risk” of the conviction being overturned.
You will need to do not forget that the case towards Letby included statistical and circumstantial proof in addition to medical opinion. Nonetheless, what are alleged to be quite a few fallacies within the statistical proof have been highlighted. And circumstantial proof is simply that – circumstantial. Letby was convicted on the medical proof.
Alastair Grant/Related Press/Alamy
The proof given as a part of the Thirlwall Inquiry can be throughout the remit of the CCRC too. Though the inquiry has not but formally concluded, all oral testimony has taken place. As can be anticipated given the inquiry’s phrases of reference, a lot of the proof heard has been much less beneficial to Letby.
The CCRC additionally has the ability underneath the Felony Appeals Act 1995 to instruct its personal skilled witnesses and interview earlier and potential new witnesses.
If the CCRC finally decides to refer the case to the Courtroom of Enchantment, it will likely be handled like every other attraction. It might end result both within the conviction being quashed and Letby going free, or a retrial.
A retrial would observe if the attraction judges believed {that a} retrial met the factors set out within the Felony Enchantment Act 1968 and was within the pursuits of justice. The chance of this end result will depend on the energy of the medical proof offered to the CCRC and the Courtroom of Enchantment.
Learn extra:
Lucy Letby case: the issues with skilled proof
Because the Thirlwall Inquiry and the CCRC utility are separate processes, is it technically not important that the inquiry concludes earlier than the CCRC decides. Closing submissions to the inquiry are scheduled for March 2025, with the report anticipated later within the 12 months. This could match throughout the anticipated timeframe of the CCRC taking at the least a 12 months to think about the applying.
An additional complicating issue is Lee’s assertion that the Countess of Chester hospital supplied such unhealthy care that it might have been “shut down” in his dwelling nation of Canada. It will little doubt result in authorized claims towards the NHS belief, notably if Letby is exonerated and culpability for avoidable deaths is sought elsewhere.
Some, together with Lee, have gone as far as to counsel the brand new proof is so compelling that Letby ought to be launched on home arrest pending the CCRC evaluation. This may be extremely uncommon, and in the meanwhile, Letby stays imprisoned as one of many worst baby serial killers in trendy British historical past.
