Branded as one of Britain’s worst serial killers, former children’s nurse Lucy Letby might soon see her 15 life-sentence convictions overturned. If she does, it’ll all be thanks to a controversial new summary report written by a panel of neonatal experts.
The 14-strong panel, led by retired Canadian neonatologist Dr Shoo Lee, says evidence used to convict the 35-year-old for killing seven babies and attempting to kill another seven at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England in 2015 and 2016 was misused by the prosecution in the initial trial in August 2023.
“In summary then, ladies and gentleman, we did not find murders,” Shoo declared in a press conference. “In all cases, death or injury was due to natural causes or just bad medical care.”
During the 31-page report, experts concluded the deaths and injuries were caused by the overworked and understaffed neonatal unit failing to complete basic medical procedures, delaying treatments and misdiagnosing conditions.
In the initial trial, the prosecution’s leading expert Dr Dewi Evans alleged Letby injected air into four newborn babies’ bloodstreams, causing fatal embolisms.
Shoo insists the prosecution’s description of these embolisms and associated skin discolouration are inconsistent with their clinical diagnosis.
“The notion that these babies can be diagnosed with air embolism because they collapsed and had these skin discolourations has no evidence in fact,” he shared.
Instead, Shoo suggests a one-day-old boy Letby was accused of injecting with air died from thrombosis after staff failed to start an infusion after intubation. Meanwhile, another 10-week-old girl died from complications linked to a respiratory distress syndrome and chronic lung disease.
The prosecution also alleged Letby poisoned two newborns with insulin in the original trial.
For these deaths, the panel agreed with a report by New Zealand’s own Professor Geoff Chase from the University of Canterbury, which stated that the tests the prosecution used were not of forensic quality and that the two children had “typical” insulin levels.
While Letby remains in His Majesty’s Prison Bronzefield in Surrey after two failed appeals in 2024, her defence lawyer Mark McDonald says the new report now provides “overwhelming evidence” she was wrongfully convicted.
Letby’s fate and her unknown future sits within the hands of the Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC), which will determine if the case is referred back for appeal in court.
“If the experts are correct, no crime was committed,” says Mark. “The case is now so strong that I could not see any reason why the CCRC shouldn’t be immediately referring this back to the court of appeal.”
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