Medical expert panel claim there is ‘no medical evidence’ to support Lucy Letby’s conviction of child murder
Lucy Letby's legal team has come forward with 'new medical evidence' to cast doubt on the disgraced nurse's conviction for child murder.
The Brit was sentenced to life in prison in August 2023 after being found guilty of murdering seven babies, as well as the attempted murder of six others.
Letby, 35, has been behind bars since, and in a 2024 retrial she was found guilty of the attempted murder of another baby.
But evidence presented by a panel of international health experts may have put her conviction into question.
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The findings look to bring forward a new challenge against the rulings made in 2023 and 2024, when Letby was found guilty of trying to kill an 'extremely premature baby' in a retrial.
Following a 10-month trial that concluded that these newborns were tragically killed by Letby, the families of those babies and the general public have now been given new evidence by some of the world's leading neonatal experts.
Panel chair Dr Shoo Lee was leading the investigation, as the independent team forensically analysed every single baby's death, in six different ways.
The team then also presented what they claimed were the clinical facts, as Dr Lee highlighted that none of them had been paid.
Dr Lee insisted that his 1989 paper on neonatal deaths, which was used as evidence in her case, was misinterpreted in 2023.
Speaking at the 70-minute press conference today, Dr Lee concluded: “In summary then, ladies and gentlemen, we did not find murders.
“In all cases, death or injury were due to natural causes or just bad medical care. Lucy was charged with seven murders and seven attempted murders.
“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.”
Speaking more about where the fault lies, the doctor said it was down to the Countess of Chester Hospital, listing a number of issues and failures from his findings.
Dr Lee claimed some of the problems were down to:
- A disregard for warnings about bacteria
- Caring for babies that were 'probably beyond their expected ability or designated level of care'
- Failure to consider birth history and pregnancy
- Incomplete medical history of patients
- Incorrectly managing medical conditions
- Lack of knowledge in using medical equipment
- Low level of understanding of respiratory physiology
- Lack of training and inadequate staffing
- Misdiagnosing diseases
- Poor supervision of junior doctors
- Below average skills in resuscitation and incubation
- Unsafe delays in diagnosis and treatment
While there may be other causes, Dr Lee also highlighted: "Death or injury of all the affected infants were due either to natural causes or to errors in medical care."
Topics: UK News, Crime, Lucy Letby
Joshua Nair