Lucy Letby, who was named as the country’s most notorious child serial killer of recent times, is potentially facing life in prison. However, new expert evidence has emerged that could indicate she has suffered one of the UK’s most significant miscarriages of justice.
The former nurse, aged 35, is currently serving 15 whole-life sentences after being found guilty of the murder of seven infants and the attempted murder of seven others. Now, 14 specialists are challenging her conviction, with the head of the panel, Dr Shoo Lee, stating: “…we did not find murders. In all cases, death or injury were due to natural causes or just bad medical care…. In our opinion, the medical opinion, the medical evidence doesn’t support murder in any of these cases, just natural causes and bad medical care.”
During a press conference in London today, Dr Lee, a retired neonatologist, presented the new medical evidence compiled by this team of world-renowned experts.
This group, which includes members from six different countries – Canada, the US, Japan, Germany, Sweden, and the UK – conducted their analysis voluntarily.
Following the conviction of Lucy Letby, an academic paper co-authored by Dr Lee over three decades ago has come to light. Despite previously expressing concerns that the evidence “wasn’t quite right“, Dr Lee and a team of experts conducted thorough examinations of all 17 babies Letby is accused of harming, reports the Mirror.
Today, he shared some of their findings. In the case of “baby 1”, it was alleged that the infant died from an air injection.
However, Dr Lee clarified that the cause of death was thrombosis. For “baby 4”, it was suggested that the stable infant collapsed on the third day due to an air injection.
Contrarily, Dr Lee stated that the baby died from systemic sepsis, pneumonia, and disseminated intravascular coagulation. He added, “The mother should have received intrapartum antibiotics prior to delivery,” and noted delays in recognising respiratory distress after birth, starting antibiotics, and initiating treatment for respiratory distress.
“There was delay in recognising respiratory distress after birth, there was delay in starting antibiotics and delay in starting treatment for the respiratory distress. We did not find any evidence of clear embolism.”
he said. Regarding “baby nine”, Dr Lee indicated that her death could have been prevented, implying she had been inadequately cared for.
He dismissed claims of an air embolism caused by Letby’s alleged air injection, instead suggesting that the medical team failed to respond promptly to a bacterial infection with antibiotics. He concluded that the child died from respiratory complications.
Baby 11, who was born prematurely and required resuscitation at birth, underwent three distressing attempts to insert an endotracheal tube, according to Dr Lee. He criticised the consultant in charge of the procedure, claiming he “didn’t know what he was doing”.
Dr Lee explained that when the consultant detached the endotracheal tube from the ventilator to manually resuscitate the baby with a bag, the infant’s chest did not rise and fall, indicating the tube was incorrectly placed.
Dr Lee recounted: “The consultant therefore concluded and alleged that baby 11’s first episode of clinical deterioration was caused by deliberate dislodgement of endotracheal tube because bagging failed to move the chest and carbon dioxide was not detected on capnography. He also alleged that the incubator alarms were deliberately turned off to prevent prompt rescue response because he did not hear the alarms when he entered the room.”
However, Dr Lee countered this claim, stating that a significant 94% air leak occurred due to the use of an incorrectly sized intubation tube, resulting in only 6% of the air reaching the baby’s lungs. He likened the situation to “That’s kind of like using a straw and blowing through a garden hose and hoping that you can inflate something at the end of the garden hose.”
According to Dr. Lee, the ventilation treatment given to one of the babies was ineffective due to a significant air leak, with 94% of the air escaping and only 6% reaching the lungs, making it impossible for adequate gas exchange to occur. As a result, the baby’s condition rapidly deteriorated, leading to desaturation and collapse.
In the case of another baby, known as baby six, a boy who survived despite allegedly being injected with insulin, Dr. Lee stated that the child had received the “wrong treatment” and had been medically “mismanaged”. He claimed that the baby’s supposed high insulin levels, attributed to an injection by Letby, had been misinterpreted.
Additionally, Dr. Lee discussed the case of baby 15, a pre-term triplet who died after experiencing a decline in his condition. A post-mortem examination revealed a ruptured liver haematoma, which prosecutors allege was caused by blunt trauma to the abdomen.
“Later the accusation was then changed to say that in fact, there was deliberate injection of air into his intravenous system to cause air embolism, collapse and death,” Dr Lee remarked. He also suggested that the haemorrhage could have occurred at birth since another triplet experienced a similar issue, stating, “It was highly likely that this was the result of extremely rapid delivery and this is a well-recognised cause of birth injury.”
Dr Lee added, “One of the other triplets also had the same haematoma, although it was not this severe. The fact that two of them had the same problem again confirms that this was likely caused by birth injury.”
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In discussing baby seven’s case during the press briefing, Dr Lee described how the premature infant faced numerous chronic issues and became very ill at 14 weeks.
Initially, it was alleged by Letby that the baby was overfed and then recovered, but Dr Lee contended that the symptoms were indicative of a viral infection. “At Alder Hay Hospital she received seven days of antibiotics and she recovered after seven days, which is consistent with an infection,” Dr Lee explained.
“In our opinion baby 7 had vomiting and clinical deterioration because of infection, possibly enterovirus infection, which can cause all these signs and symptoms. There is no evidence to support an injection into the stomach of overfeeding.”
What does it mean?
Tory MP Sir David Davis described Letby’s convictions as “one of the major injustices of modern times”. Barrister Mark McDonald, who leads Lucy Letby’s legal team, has labelled the day’s evidential revelations a “gamechanger”.
When questioned about his thoughts on the press conference, he stated: “I’ve never known anything like it. You know, never before – and I mean it’s a grand statement to make – but never before have we had such an experienced credible body of experts come together across the world and say something has gone wrong, and I think it’s a gamechanger.”
Following these developments, the Criminal Cases Review Commission, responsible for investigating potential miscarriages of justice, will reassess Letby’s case after her attorneys filed a submission on Monday. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman was asked whether Sir Keir Starmer believed in Letby’s guilt, to which they responded: “This was a truly horrendous case that shocked the nation. A criminal trial has taken place and Lucy Letby was found guilty.”
The spokesman added: “There is, of course, an established process through the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which is independent of Government, and the commission has today confirmed they have received an application from Ms Letby’s legal team. We wouldn’t get drawn on that independent process.”
With this, the focus turns to the expected review and what the outcome might reveal about the case presented by the prosecution.
Letby was found guilty of secretly attacking over a dozen babies at the Countess of Chester hospital’s neonatal ward between 2015 and 2016, resulting in the death of seven infants. The trial at Manchester Crown Court revealed that doctors at the hospital had noticed an unusual increase in the number of babies dying or unexpectedly collapsing.
Unable to find a medical explanation, they alerted the police, leading to an investigation. Letby was first arrested in July 2018 and charged in November 2020.
The prosecution presented evidence of Letby using various methods to harm the babies, including injecting air and insulin into their bloodstream, infusing air into their gastrointestinal tract, force-feeding them an overdose of milk or fluids, and causing impact-type trauma. She was found to have killed the babies while misleading her colleagues into believing the causes were natural.
Last year, Letby failed twice to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal – in May for seven murders and seven attempted murders, and in October for the attempted murder of a baby girl, for which she was convicted by a different jury at a retrial.
At the first of those appeals, a bid to admit fresh evidence from Dr Lee was rejected, as three senior judges concluded there had been no prosecution expert evidence diagnosing air embolus solely on the basis of skin discolouration. Dr Lee said he has recently updated his academic paper and found no cases of skin discolouration linked to air embolism by the venous system.
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