Bombshell verdict on Lucy Letby conviction from world-leading medical panel
There is “no evidence" that infants died because Letby injected air into their bloodstream, concluded Dr Shoo Lee, whose paper was used to convict her.
“We did not find any murders. In all cases, death or injury were due to natural causes or just bad medical care.” This is today’s explosive conclusion of an independent review into the medical evidence used to convict Britain’s most prolific baby killer.
It is a review led by Dr Shoo Lee, a retired neonatalist whose 30-year-old paper was used to convict Lucy Letby, the 35 year-old former neonatal nurse from Hereford, who is currently serving 15 whole-life orders after being found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder eight more at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.
Speaking to reporters today, Lee, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and founder of the Canadian Neonatal Foundation, said he was driven to convene a panel of 14 world-leading medical experts because he felt an academic paper he had co-authored over 30 years ago, on air embolism in the bloodstream in babies, had been misrepresented in Letby’s original trial.
Lee explained that he was contacted about the Letby case in relation to a possible appeal and, after looking at transcripts, became concerned “because the evidence that’s being used to convict her, regardless of whether she is innocent or guilty, was wrong”.
According to Lee, in all the cases in his paper, air was injected into the babies' arteries, not their veins, and the skin discolouration supposedly seen in some of the Countess of Chester babies was not possible from veinal injection.
Today, presenting their findings at a press conference in London, the panel - comprised of 10 neonatologists, a paediatric surgeon, a paediatric infectious disease specialist, and a neonatal intensive care nurse, who reviewed the medical records of the seven infants that Letby was convicted of murdering - said there was “no evidence" to support the prosecution’s argument that many of the infants died because Letby injected air into their bloodstream.
Letby was also convicted of murdering a baby by removing its breathing tube. Yet Lee said today that the panel had found "no proof the tube was dislodged". Rather, “the clinical deterioration was caused by the use of an undersized tube. The initial intubation was traumatic and poorly supervised”, he told reporters, claiming that the consultant on the ward appeared to not understand “how the equipment he was using actually worked."
After outlining a series of failings by the Countess of Chester hospital where Letby worked, Lee came to a damning conclusion: “If this were a hospital in Canada, it would be shut down.”
The bombshell press conference comes just after Letby’s legal team submitted an application to the independent Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice. They are being assisted by David Davis MP, who has described the case as "one of the major injustices of modern times".
Speaking to the Commons last month, Davis criticised the case for being “built on a poor understanding of probabilities", adding that “nobody saw [Letby] do anything untoward”. He has also highlighted that the Countess of Chester Hospital had been battling a Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection outbreak around the time Letby’s suspected crimes took place. The mortality rate for Pseudomonas aeruginosa stands at over 55% for infants of extremely low birth weight, David told MPs, adding: “Again, the jury never knew about that contamination.”
What now?
The CCRC, which received the application from Letby's lawyers yesterday, has confirmed that work has already begun to assess the case, which involves “a significant volume of complicated evidence”.
A CCRC spokesman also cautioned that much of the commentary surrounding Lucy Letby’s case comes “from parties with only a partial view of the evidence.”
Which is certainly true. And ongoing scrutiny of the case risks prolonging the pain too for grieving families of the newborns Letby is convicted of killing.
Given Letby was found guilty after an extensive trial lasting eight months, a second trial and an appeals process, some have also objected to the arrogance of individuals who’ve decided they are better equipped to get to the bottom of this case than the country’s highest courts.
Yet those questioning Letby’s innocence extend beyond the usual conspiracy theorists. “This is a panel of 14 of the world’s top experts. If you don’t believe them, who will you believe?” challenged Lee today, who insisted he is seeking answers not just to prevent a potentially innocent woman from rotting in jail but for grieving families too.
Despite Letby losing two further bids to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal in 2024, opposition to her conviction is not fading.
That this case is built on the grounds on Letby consistently being on shifts when babies died, as opposed to any direct evidence, means those who fear we could be contending with a grave miscarriage of justice are unlikely to be quietened any time soon.
Caitlin Allen
Deputy Editor
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