‘No evidence of murder’: Experts say convicted nurse Lucy Letby didn’t kill babies

A doctor whose 1989 academic paper on air embolism in babies featured in Lucy Letby’s trial for the murder of seven babies says all the babies died of natural causes or poor medical care.

British nurse Lucy Letby was found guilty of murdering seven babies

The case of a British nurse sentenced to life imprisonment for killing seven newborn babies is being reviewed by an independent commission as a panel of medical experts on Tuesday (local time) argued there was no evidence to support her conviction for murder.

Lucy Letby is serving 15 whole-life sentences for the deaths of babies at neonatal units in the northwest of England where she worked between 2015 and 2016, in a case that shocked the nation.

Letby was convicted of murdering seven newborn babies and attempting to kill seven others at the Countess of Chester Hospital, making her the most prolific child serial killer in modern British history.

But her defence team on Tuesday applied to the independent Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to probe whether there had been a possible miscarriage of justice in her two trials in 2023 and 2024.

Letby, 35, who maintains her innocence, was accused of attacking the babies by various means.

Those included injecting air into their bloodstreams which caused an air embolism that blocked the blood supply, leading to sudden and unexpected collapses.

But Shoo Lee, a retired Canadian doctor who co-authored a 1989 academic paper on air embolism in babies which featured in Letby’s 10-month trial, told a press conference on Tuesday Letby had exhausted all her appeals “and yet it remains that the evidence was wrong”.

“The evidence that was used to convict her was wrong and for me that is a problem,” he said.

Professor Neena Modi, Barrister Mark McDonald, MP Sir David Davis and Dr Shoo Lee attend a press conference to present new evidence regarding the safety of the convictions of former nurse, Lucy Letby. Picture: Getty Images.

He was speaking at a London news conference to present the findings of an international panel of 14 independent experts in the care of very young babies, who all gave their time voluntarily.

Lee said the panel’s experts concluded that the evidence they found “does not support murder in any of these cases”.

“If you are looking for the truth you don’t need to go any further,” he added.

Letby’s lawyer Mark McDonald said Tuesday’s “fresh evidence” had “demolished” the medical findings presented at Letby’s trial.

A projection of the conclusions are seen on a screen during the press conference. Picture: Getty Images.

‘Major injustice’

The panel was made up of experts from prestigious institutions in six countries, most of whom had little knowledge of the Letby case when they agreed to take part in the probe, Lee said.

Two members of the panel independently conducted a detailed review of each child’s care with a third brought in if there was a difference of opinion.

They concluded that there was “no medical evidence to support malfeasance causing death or injury” in any of the cases and that the babies died due to “natural causes or medical care”, a summary of their findings said.

Highlighting “numerous problems in the medical care of the children harmed”, they added that these included misdiagnosis, lack of teamwork, poor skills in basic medical procedures and management of common neonatal conditions.

The panel also found that the hospital unit was understaffed with inadequate numbers of appropriately trained personnel.

Sir David Davis (L) and Dr Shoo Lee at the press conference. Picture: Getty Images.

Underfunding and staffing at hospitals run by the UK’s state-funded National Health Service, which the majority of the population rely on for healthcare, is a major political issue in Britain.

A spokesperson for the CCRC said: “We have received a preliminary application in relation to Ms Letby’s case, and work has begun to assess the application.” The commission has the power to refer cases back to the Court of Appeal if it determines there may have been a miscarriage of justice.

Former Conservative minister David Davis, who has raised Letby’s case in parliament, told reporters her convictions were “one of the major injustices of modern times”.

She lost two bids last year to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal. Lee told AFP he hoped “justice will carry the day at the end”. “It appears there is a woman in jail who should not be there … I hope that our involvement will result in the correct decisions being made.”

AFP