The Lucy Letby Case

[peemac]

At the risk of repeating myself - this woman should be released immediately pending a full review of the case & conviction. Have read the latest Private Eye investigation, which is damming (it'll be available online eventually.) There's also a lot of leaking going on - presumably from interested parties who were involved in the case too afraid to go public...

Three of Lucy Letby’s victims ‘could have deaths explained by medical problems’

A review found the deaths of Babies C, D and E at the Countess of Chester Hospital ‘may have been prevented with different care’

www.telegraph.co.uk

A leaked copy of Dr Hawdon’s report – which was never seen by the jury in the original trial – showed she thought 13 of the 17 deaths and collapses could be explained. The consultant made several recommendations, including that out-of-hours attendance by consultants should be reviewed, and that staff should be given further help with intubating babies and the timely administration of antibiotics.

Giving evidence at the Thirlwall Inquiry on Monday, Claire McLaughlan, a lay reviewer for the RCPCH, said she believed allegations against Letby were “not based on fact” and seemed to be the personal opinion of Dr Stephen Breary a consultant on the ward.
In a statement read to the hearing, she said: “In my opinion, this was the personal view, feelings, interpretation, of one person regarding Miss Letby. It was not based on fact; it was uncorroborated.

“Even now I would not consider his view as objective or impartial, as he was too involved, too close to the situation and had a conflict of interest.”
Giving evidence, she added: “They gave us a mixed picture because they told us in one breath about their concerns and the allegations they were making but in the next breath they were telling us what a good nurse she was.

Hawdon is claiming she was misled and would have approached it in a different way if she thought someone was under suspicion.!

That statement alone should alarm people.

In a way she is saying that if she was told to look for criminality, she would have found a way to find it.


I think in medical or financial type cases the jury should be made up from a panel that have some knowledge of the subject - otherwise it's very easy to steer a jury a certain way.

The UK post office/ horizon scandal is a classic example.

 

[Howth Head]

The first of many books on this disturbing case....a few excerpts from the review below.

Unmasking Lucy Letby: What if there was NO baby killer...?

Peter Hitchens dives into the trial of Lucy Letby in this new book from Judith Moritz and Jonathan Coffey.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Did the state, the police, the prosecution service or the media really presume Letby's innocence before she was judged? In which case, is there any solid basis for her conviction, or have we just witnessed a spasm of establishment groupthink and a nasty piece of injustice?

Again and again the authors stress the absence of any hard evidence that Letby did anything wrong.

They record that the doctors who first accused her of wrongdoing ‘hadn’t a shred of proof’. It is not even clear that anybody did anything wrong. They note that not long before Ms Letby’s first arrest there was still no direct evidence against her. ‘Not one of her colleagues could say they had seen her harming a baby’.

 

[Howth Head]

More revelations today....her new barrister must be feeling more and more confident. (Behind a paywall - an excerpt below.)

Lucy Letby hospital outlines 15 reasons why ‘baby killer’ was innocent

Neonatal ward manager lists why nurse, who would eventually be convicted of murder, could not be behind the deaths of babies

www.telegraph.co.uk

.

A neonatal ward manager at Lucy Letby's hospital outlined 15 reasons why the nurse could not be to blame for the deaths and collapse of babies, it has emerged. Documents released for the Thirlwall Inquiy, which is examining how incidents at the Countess of Chester could have been prevented, show that Eirian Powell, Letby’s boss, was unconvinced by allegations against the nurse.

She distributed a document entitled “Neonatal Unit review 2015-2016” in May 2016, which gave 15 reasons why it was unlikely there was a baby killer on the ward.

“There is no evidence whatsoever against LL (Lucy Letby) other than coincidence,” she wrote. “LL works full time and has the qualification in speciality (QIS). She is therefore more likely to be looking after the sickest infant on the unit, LL is also available herself to work overtime when the acuity of the unit is over capacity.”

The neonatal ward manager went on to point out that the spike in deaths could be accounted for by failings on the unit and elsewhere as well as health problems with the babies.

 

[Howth Head]

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out....

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/14/letby-lawyers-to-reveal-evidence-undermines-convictions/

Lucy Letby’s legal team is set to reveal fresh evidence that “significantly undermines” her convictions, her barrister said in a statement released on Saturday...

 

[Howth Head]

You wonder just how long the UK Justice system will hold out under the mounting pressure. Her compensation payment for this injustice is mounting by the day...she'll get millions.

Lucy Letby retrial needed after ‘clear miscarriage of justice’, says David Davis

MP tells parliament he believes justice has not been done after hearing experts’ concerns over former nurse’s murder convictions

www.theguardian.com

Fundamental flaws in the criminal trial system led to the former nurse Lucy Letby being convicted of murder in a “clear miscarriage of justice”, David Davis has said in parliament.

In a parliamentary debate, the former cabinet minister detailed the mounting concerns of leading experts about the convictions and said there should quickly be a retrial. He said he believed Letby would be cleared in it.

Sir David Davis calls for Letby retrial, claims 'no hard evidence'

Sir David Davis claims case notes reveal that the conviction of Lucy Letby was based on flawed evidence.

www.bbc.com

 

[Howth Head]

Good to see RTE finally giving this some coverage. Surprising really given the amount of Irish nurses, doctors etc working in the UK and the similarities of our legal systems. The last paragraph (below) is bizarre and seems to suggest yet again that the safety of the conviction shouldn't be examined due to the distress caused to the parents. Do they want true justice - or a head on a plate?

Calls for retrial of Lucy Letby continue to reverberate

Lucy Letby was known as the most prolific child serial killer of modern times after her conviction in 2023. However she insists that she is innocent and calls for a retrial have continued, with the matter debated in the House of Commons this week, writes Tommy Meskill

www.rte.ie

For the families of the victims, the distress continues too. They've described debate around the conviction of Letby as "grossly offensive" and "distressing" and have called for it to stop.

 

[Dr Strangelove]

Good to see RTE finally giving this some coverage.

RTÉ are paying six figures to have a London-based correspondent.

This is the first sceptical RTÉ coverage of the case eight months after the New Yorker story. It purely regurgitates what is already in the public domain.

If you'd paid me €50 I would've written a better story six months ago....

 

[Purple]

RTÉ are paying six figures to have a London-based correspondent.

This is the first sceptical RTÉ coverage of the case eight months after the New Yorker story. It purely regurgitates what is already in the public domain.

If you'd paid me €50 I would've written a better story six months ago....

So business as usual from the Public Sector Broadcaster.

 

[Howth Head]

Three relevant stories in the media today....

Rise in baby deaths at hospital ‘not an outlier’, Letby inquiry hears

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, emeritus professor of statistics at the University of Cambridge, was speaking at the Thirlwall Inquiry.

uk.news.yahoo.com

Twist in Letby case: she could be inside for years, even if innocent

You know you are innocent. But somehow it has not gone that way in court, and you gape in dismay as the jury foreman declares you guilty.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Chair of miscarriages of justice review body quits

Helen Pitcher "jumped as she was pushed", a government source said.

www.bbc.com

 

[Howth Head]

Another week - more developments....

Lawyers set to 'blame doctor over baby death at centre of Letby case'

The allegation against consultant Dr Stephen Brearey will be in an appeal centring on disturbing new evidence about alleged poor quality of care given to babies at his hospital in Chester.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Evidence gathered by Letby’s new legal team raises the harrowing prospect that she is serving life in jail for murders which were in fact deaths caused by insitutional failings at the hospital. Experts have increasingly questioned how Letby, 35, was convicted with only circumstantial evidence, contested statistical probabilities and a lack of a convincing motive. Key planks of the prosecution case have since been cast into serious doubt.

 

[Purple]

Really disturbing case. It's a warning of the danger of framing an issue in an emotional context instead of one based on evidence and fact. There's a reason why the statue of Justice is blindfolded.

 

[Howth Head]

This seems like a very significant development. Perhaps one of the most important so far:

My research was misused to convict Lucy Letby — so I did my own inquiry

Dr Shoo Lee, a neonatalist whose 30-year-old paper was pivotal in the nurse’s trial, and an expert panel have re-examined the case and reached ‘explosive’ conclusions

www.thetimes.com

Unbeknown to Lee, an academic paper he had co-authored more than 30 years earlier had been used to help convict Letby 35
Now 18 months after the neonatal nurse was given a whole-life sentence, Lee is preparing to make a significant intervention in her case and has flown more than 4,000 miles to London to lead a press conference on behalf of Letby’s legal team.