Police bodycam footage released by Cheshire Constabulary police force in Manchester on 17 August 2023, shows the nurse Lucy Letby arrested at home in Chester on 3 July 2018. Photo: AFP / Cheshire Constabulary / Handout
Lawyers representing convicted British baby killer Lucy Letby have asked for an inquiry into the newborns' deaths to be paused after a panel of medical experts found no evidence of a crime, a judge has said.
Justice Kathryn Thirlwall announced the request from Letby and former executives at the Countess of Chester Hospital where she worked before hearing closing statements in the inquiry.
The inquiry began in September, seeking accountability for staff and management for the harm to babies at the hospital in north-west England.
The probe is predicated on Letby's guilt. She is serving multiple life sentences with no chance of release after being convicted of seven counts of murder and the attempted murder of seven other infants, when she worked as a neonatal nurse between June 2015 and June 2016.
She was also found guilty of an eighth murder at a separate hearing following her trial last year.
But lawyers for Letby said that if the convictions are overturned, the inquiry might reach the wrong conclusions, and the £10 million ($20.3 million) spent so far will have been a waste of taxpayer funds.
Prosecutors said Letby left little or no trace when she harmed babies: injecting air into their bloodstreams, administering air or milk into their stomachs via nasogastric tubes, interfering with breathing tubes or poisoning them with insulin.
They said she was the only employee on duty in the neonatal unit when the children collapsed or died.
But since Letby's conviction last year, a panel of 16 international medical experts in paediatrics and neonatology who reviewed the medical evidence concluded there was little hard proof she was responsible for killing the babies.
The panel concluded natural causes or bad medical care led to the death or collapse of each newborn, Dr Shoo Lee, a retired neonatologist from Canada, said last month.
The panel also questioned the premise that there was an unexplained spike in deaths at the hospital.
It said evidence of schedules that showed Letby was present during all the deaths was "incomplete, selective and, therefore, meaningless."
Lucy Letby was the only employee on duty in the neonatal unit when the children collapsed or died. Photo: AFP / Cheshire Constabulary
Lawyer says medical panel 'demolishes' evidence against Letby
Letby's convictions are being examined by the Criminal Case Review Commission, which looks at potential miscarriages of justice. It could refer its findings to the Court of Appeal.
Former executives at the hospital - chief executive Tony Chambers, medical director Ian Harvey, director of nursing Alison Kelly and human resources director Sue Hodkinson - asked for the public inquiry to be halted after the medical panel released its findings.
Despite the push to review the evidence against Letby, several related investigations into the issue remain ongoing.
Cheshire police announced last week that its investigation into corporate manslaughter at the hospital had been expanded and was now looking at individual suspects for gross negligence manslaughter.
Letby's lawyer Mark McDonald criticised that decision, based on the medical panel's findings.
"We now have substantial and significant expert evidence which completely demolishes the prosecution case against Lucy Letby and points the finger in a very different direction to that which the police are currently looking," Mr McDonald said.
"It is time they take a step back and ask themselves whether have they made a huge mistake."
A separate investigation is looking into other deaths and near-deaths of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women's Hospital when Letby worked there between 2012 to 2016.
- ABC
