
Nick Ferrari 7am - 10am
4 February 2025, 10:03 | Updated: 4 February 2025, 12:25
A panel of medical experts have claimed they found "no murders" in Lucy Letby's case as they called for her sentence to be investigated.
Letby, from Hereford, was convicted of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of seven others, with two attempts on one child, when she worked on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
After two trials, she is serving 15 whole-life orders, making her only the fourth woman in UK history to be told she will never be released from prison.
Today, her legal team presented "new evidence" to have her case overturned - claiming that a number of babies Letby killed actually died by other means and were not murdered.
MP Sir David Davis began the press conference in London to present "significant new evidence" from Dr Shoo Lee, an internationally recognised neonatal medical expert.
Sir David said: "He's come here today, I suspect at his own expense, to put right what I think, anyway, is one of the major injustices of modern times."
Doctor Lee opened the panel by explaining its 14 members set out to determine each baby's cause of death.
The team includes 10 neonatologists, a pediatric surgeon, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, and a neonatal intensive care nurse.
"We understand their stress and their anguish, and our work is not meant to cause more distress," Doctor Lee said.
"Rather, it is meant to give them comfort and assurance in knowing the truth about what really happened.
"We know that they want to know the truth and that is why we are here to tell the truth.
"Should they have any queries or concerns, we'd be pleased to discuss them with them."
He added that to go through each child's death would take "days or weeks" so the panel will only study a select few.
The first baby they looked into was killed by Thrombosis - not by air being injected into its bloodstream he claimed.
Dr Shoo Lee said: "The notion that these cases are air embolisms because they collapse and because there were skin rashes has no basis in evidence. Let's be clear about that."
The next baby also showed "no evidence" of air embolism, he said.
Dr Shoo Lee said the panel had next looked at a baby girl identified only as baby nine.
He said her death was preventable, suggested she had been poorly cared for, adding there was no evidence of an air embolism, for which Lucy Letby has been blamed after claims she injected the child with air.
Dr Lee said the child was born severely pre-term with chronic lung disease and needed to be resuscitated.
He said Letby had been accused of injecting air into the child through a nasal-gastric tube into her stomach causing respiratory arrest, heart failure and death.
Letby was also accused of turning off a monitor alerting medics if the baby stopped breathing for longer than around 20 seconds, causing a delay in her treatment.
Dr Lee said the alarm was not switched off and the baby was "gasping" for air.
He suggested the medics caring for her failed to respond timely to a bacterial infection with antibiotics, and he concluded the child died from respiratory complications, with no evidence of air embolism.
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Dr Lee concluded the press conference by saying: "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."
A Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) spokesperson said: "We are aware that there has been a great deal of speculation and commentary surrounding Lucy Letby's case, much of it from parties with only a partial view of the evidence. We ask that everyone remembers the families affected by events at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
"We have received a preliminary application in relation to Ms Letby's case, and work has begun to assess the application. We anticipate further submissions being made to us.
"It is not for the CCRC to determine innocence or guilt in a case, that's a matter for the courts.
"It is for the CCRC to find, investigate and if appropriate, refer potential miscarriages of justice to the appellate courts when new evidence or new argument means there is a real possibility that a conviction will not be upheld, or a sentence reduced.
"At this stage it is not possible to determine how long it will take to review this application. A significant volume of complicated evidence was presented to the court in Ms Letby's trials.
"The CCRC is independent. We do not work for the government, courts, police, the prosecution or for anyone applying for a review of their case. This helps us investigate alleged miscarriages of justice impartially."
A statement from Cheshire Police said: “In August 2023, following a trial spanning almost a year and the jury carrying out their deliberations for more than a month, Lucy Letby was convicted of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six others. She was also found not guilty of two counts of attempted murder and the jury could not reach a verdict on six further attempted murder charges.
“In July 2024, following a re-trial Letby was found guilty of a further count of attempted murder. As a result of these two trials, she was sentenced to 15 whole life orders in prison.
“The case was subsequently reviewed by the Court of Appeal, where three judges unanimously rejected Letby’s claim that the evidence was flawed and dismissed her leave to appeal on all grounds. A further appeal was lodged by Letby in relation to the outcome of the re-trial. On 24th October 2024, following a further hearing at the Court of Appeal in London, a panel of judges rejected this application.
“There are currently two active investigations that are continuing – these include an ongoing review into the neo-natal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital between the period of 2012 to 2016 and a separate investigation into corporate manslaughter at the Countess of Chester Hospital. In addition to this there is an independent statutory public inquiry – the next phase of this will focus on closing submissions in March 2025.
“In light of the ongoing investigations we will not be commenting any further on this case.”