The case of a British nurse sentenced to life imprisonment for killing seven newborn babies is being reviewed as medical experts Tuesday argued there was no evidence to support her conviction for murder.
Lucy Letby is serving 15 whole-life sentences for the deaths of babies at neo-natal units in the northwest of England, where she worked between 2015 and 2016.
Letby was convicted of murdering seven newborn babies and attempting to kill seven others at the Countess of Chester Hospital neo-natal unit, making her Britainโs most prolific child serial killer in modern UK history.
But her defence team on Tuesday applied to the independent Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to probe whether there had been a possible miscarriage of justice in her two trials in 2023 and 2024.
Letby, 35, who maintains her innocence, was accused of attacking the babies by various means including injecting air into their bloodstreams which caused an air embolism that blocked the blood supply and led to sudden and unexpected collapses.
But Shoo Lee, a retired Canadian doctor who co-authored a 1989 academic paper on air embolism in babies which featured in Letbyโs 10-month trial, told a press conference on Tuesday Letby had exhausted all her appeals โand yet it remains that the evidence was wrongโ.
โThe evidence that was used to convict her was wrong and for me that is a problem,โ he said.
He was speaking at a London news conference to present the findings of an international panel of 14 independent experts in the care of very young babies.
Lee said the panelโs conclusion was that the evidence they found โdoes not support murder in any of these casesโ.
Letbyโs lawyer Mark McDonald said Tuesdayโs โfresh evidenceโ had โdemolishedโ the medical findings presented at Letbyโs trial.
โ โMajor injusticeโ โ
A spokesperson for the CCRC said: โWe have received a preliminary application in relation to Ms Letbyโs case, and work has begun to assess the application.โ
The commission has the power to refer cases back to the Court of Appeal if it determines there may have been a miscarriage of justice.
โIt is not for the CCRC to determine innocence or guilt โฆ thatโs a matter for the courts,โ it said in a statement.
Rather the commissionโs role was to investigate and โrefer potential miscarriages of justice to the appellate courts when new evidence โฆ means there is a real possibility that a conviction will not be upheld, or a sentence reducedโ.
Former Conservative minister David Davis, who has raised Letbyโs case in parliament, told reporters her convictions were โone of the major injustices of modern timesโ.
She lost two bids last year to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal.
At the first appeal, a bid to admit fresh evidence from Lee was rejected as three senior judges concluded there had been no prosecution expert evidence diagnosing air embolus solely on the basis of skin discolouration.
A months-long separate public inquiry examining the wider circumstances around Letbyโs case opened in September and is currently hearing evidence.
AFP