LUCY Letby’s conviction risks being thrown wide open after medical experts deemed evidence used to convict her “unsafe”.
Last week, a panel of 14 neonatalogists told a press conference in London there’s no evidence of the nurse’s crimes.
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Top doctor Shoo Lee – whose academic paper was used to support the evidence against her in court – is also among those pushing for a retrial.
But renowned lawyer Joseph Kotrie-Monson – who has been on defence teams in similar cases of baby murder – said those convinced of her innocence don’t seem to understand criminal law.
He claims there was so much more evidence used to convict her beyond the medical papers doctors say cast doubt on her guilt.
Letby, 35, was jailed for life for murdering seven babies at Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit – becoming one of the most prolific child killers in British history.
She was also convicted of attempting to murder nine more infants following two trials, and is now wallowing in prison.
During the trial, heinous notes where Letby described herself as “evil” and guilty were laid bare – along with sick diary entries about the killings.
Mr Kotrie-Monson said the lack of medical evidence to convict Letby is not necessarily unusual and does not indicate a miscarriage of justice.
Lawyers for Letby revealed before last week’s hearing that they have submitted an application to the independent Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).
But the Court of Appeal has previously dismissed two appeals for lack of new evidence.
Mr Kotrie-Monson described the conference as “a little bit glitzy”, and “more American”, adding self-respecting lawyers will be “slightly alarmed” by the medical experts concluding the conviction is “unsafe”.
“That betrays a complete lack of understanding,” he said. “That’s beyond their expertise and it’s beyond their remit.”
“People can be convicted of very serious offences without any medical evidence at all.”
Mr Kotrie-Monson said: “There was various evidence of, at the very least, extremely odd behaviours, very specific behaviours, perhaps even on occasion, ghoulish behaviours that were reported by witnesses and present in some of the actions of Lucy Letby.”
He referred to the materials obtained from her home, including her diary being marked with victims’ initials – on, for example, their dates of death and when conditions worsened.
He said just putting initials suggests the information was “only for her”.
The lawyer also spoke about the medical documents she stole and kept under the bed, as well as bizarre notes claiming she was “evil” and guilty.
“At the very least, this is behavior that would strike somebody as completely weird,” he said.
He admitted Letby’s odd behaviour and the circumstantial evidence, detailed to the jury during her trial, is not necessarily enough individually to convict her.
But “the jury is entitled to take account of all of her behavior” when coming to a verdict, he said.
Each example is “not going to be enough to get a conviction”, he continued, adding: “There’s a point at which they all mount up and a jury can make their own conclusions. They can infer guilt.
“Am I saying that that means that that was the case here, and there was enough of that extraneous evidence to build that picture?
“I’m just not in a position to say, I’m not the jury.”
Mr Kotrie-Monson said he was baffled by last week’s expert panel – who he deemed as not particularly “official” – claiming “only medical evidence matters”.
“Bearing in mind that the defence had the opportunity to call medical evidence and didn’t… but because we don’t have evidence, in our view, that leads to a conclusion that these babies died unnaturally.”
He continued: “That isn’t how criminal law works. One doesn’t even need to prove the exact mechanism of death in order to prove murder.
“Because if there’s motive, if there’s no confession and other behaviours, there are many cases where somebody can be convicted of murder even when there isn’t a body.”
He said the Criminal Cases Review Commission will consider “all of those other aspects”, as well as medical evidence, and it “may well” reach the Court of Appeal and lead to a retrial.
He said the CCRC will “look at this very very carefully” but added the prospect of the convictions being quashed or even retrial granted is “something of a stretch”.
“It’s not for me to answer, but it’s an uphill battle.”
“They they will not make an order for a retrial in a case this loaded, unless they really feel something went terribly wrong, not just with the medical evidence, but the jury reached a wrong conclusion regarding the evidence as a whole.”
Asked why so many people are convinced Letby is innocent, Mr Kotrie-Monson said: “At a very basic level, there are many, many people in the public for whom the idea of this apparently nice girl next door nurse could be your mum’s friend’s daughter could have committed such atrocious crimes.
“The reality is that people in this country do sometimes commit absolutely unspeakable crimes. And sadly, I’ve seen it.
“From that point of view, I think there’ll be some people who will always find it difficult that Lucy Letby is a murderer.
“That doesn’t mean that she’s not. It’s a matter of evidence.”
COMMENT: I covered Lucy Letby case from her first arrest…Here’s why I know she’s guilty
By Holly Christodoulou, Digital Court Editor
AT every step, Lucy Letby was a coward.
She was a coward when she refused to come back into court after the first guilty verdicts filtered in.
She was a coward when she hid in her cell instead of facing her victims’ families at sentencing.
And she was a coward when she targeted newborn babies who were barely bigger than her hand.
Now she is being a coward again and hiding again behind her lawyers.
Letby’s case was one of the most unusual I have ever worked on. It took nine months of harrowing evidence before the jury were finally sent out.
Then it was a further 22 days before the verdicts were reached.
But the case actually began years before when police released a statement confirming a woman had been arrested on suspicion of murdering babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
It didn’t take long to get Letby’s details – officers had raided a home that linked to the nurse and her Facebook had her work details.
The smoking gun really came though when a staff profile emerged. Holding up a tiny baby-gro in her scrubs, Letby spoke out how long she had worked at the hospital and what her role was.
The nurse said: “My role involves caring for a wide range of babies requiring various levels of support.
“Some are here for a few days, others for many months and I enjoy seeing them progress and supporting their families.”
Letby also revealed she was undergoing “extra training” to enhance her “knowledge and skills within the Intensive Care area”.
The “career-driven” nurse was even described as a “champion for children”.
But as we later found out, the killer hid under this “cover of trust” to “gaslight” everyone around her, including her own colleagues.
Usually in these cases, the suspect’s social media will be a treasure trove – posts about hating work, glamorous pictures, sharing a major dislike for children for example.
Letby’s was not. She was, as the police always described, beige.
When the case finally came to court, it was hard to predict what way the jury would go. Listening to reams of complicated medical evidence over such a long period of time may have ultimately been detrimental to convicting Letby.
As it was, the evidence wasn’t clear-cut.
We were told the collapses and deaths of the 13 babies were not “naturally-occurring tragedies” but instead the work of “poisoner” Letby.
Her reign of terror was finally uncovered after staff grew suspicious of the “significant rise” in the number of babies dying or suffering “catastrophic” collapses.
Letby was of course found to be the “common denominator” among the deaths and collapses.
But there was no billion-to-one DNA linking her to the killing spree. We heard Letby had been seen hunched over some of her victims before they fell ill but no CCTV showed this.
Instead, the jury could only rely on the medical evidence provided by the very experts who are now claiming their input was misinterpreted.
They are among a growing number of researchers and politicians calling for Letby’s convictions to be quashed due to a miscarriage of justice – much to the dismay of her victims’ families.
And yes, these experts are smart – they are more intelligent than me, than Letby, than the lawyers who prosecuted her.
But it’s like everyone has overlooked the fact there was other proof that was enough to convince me she was guilty.
Bubbling under the surface of her outwardly-calm demeanour was a twisted chaos that exploded from the nurse in the form of handwritten diary entries.
One that gave away her guilt read: “I am evil I did this”.
The note added: “I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them.
“I am a horrible person”.
Letby also screamed for help on Post-Its and begged “Kill me” as she revealed her inner turmoil.
As the death toll rose, the notes became more frenzied.
In one, Letby scrawled: “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live like this.
“No one will ever understand or appreciate what it’s like.”
How is it so easy to suddenly overlook these cold hard facts? Letby was obsessed with the families of her victims – an innocent person does not stalk the grieving parents of a dead child on social media.
The jury certainly didn’t forget Letby’s confession when they made their decision. Neither did a second jury at her retrial for attempting kill another baby.
Nor did the top judges who TWICE refused when her team applied for permission to appeal against her convictions.
Yes Letby’s case could return to court but why does that mean the outcome would be any different?
The Criminal Cases Review Commission could return the case to the Court of Appeal but equally, they may not.
The Court of Appeal could refuse the request for a retrial. A retrial could take place but a jury might still convict her.
And then what? The families of her victims will be forced to listen again to the harrowing final details of their newborn babies’ lives before they were cruelly snuffed out by Letby.
A jury made their decision, Letby was not simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, she was a killer.
It is time we left her to rot.
BREAKDOWN OF EVIDENCE
Baby death expert Dr Dewi Evans – whose evidence in court helped nail Letby – previously The Sun there is simply no doubt in his mind she is guilty.
Not just that, but there is evidence that she may have killed more.
Speaking at his CCTV-protected house in Wales, Dr Evans told how he has been under a constant barrage of threats since Letby’s trial from her supporters.
But for Dr Evans, the case remains clear cut.
He said the campaign to free Letby is led by those who had “no access to the clinical records and were not there for the trial”.
“I think it reflects the shock of having to come to terms with the fact that how on earth could a young nurse deliberately harm babies in her care?
“Lucy Letby had a fair trial. The convictions are absolutely solid.
“There are no grounds for appealing any of her convictions.
“In fact, the evidence is that she’s responsible for placing more babies in harm’s way.
“And that’s the most concerning aspect of all.”
Dr Evans believes Letby should never be released.
He said: “I’ve read all 58 pages, all 209 paragraphs of her original appeal and it comes out very strongly, I’m pleased to say, in relation to the strength of the prosecution evidence and in relation to the evidence given by those of us acting as independent witnesses.
“I’ve no doubt Lucy Letby is guilty and it’s not just because she was there and she was in sole care of most of these babies but their pattern of collapse was something you simply don’t see.
“She was hiding in plain sight.
“The deaths that we’ve discussed are all the result of deliberate harm caused by one rogue nurse. Lucy Letby.”
POST-TRIAL EVIDENCE
As well as a raft of circumstantial evidence against Letby heard in court, other information has come to light since her conviction.
The Thirlwell public inquiry into Letby’s crimes has heard disturbing evidence of the nurse potentially tampering with babies’ breathing tubes while on two work placements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital in 2012 and 2015.
Richard Baker KC, representing the families of 12 babies, said that during her time at Liverpool Women’s Hospital babies had collapsed due to dislodgement of endotracheal [breathing] tubes during nearly 40 per cent of her shifts – despite it happening on average in less than one per cent of nursing shifts.
Letby was convicted of poisoning two babies by injecting them with insulin.
Evidence seen by BBC’s Panorama also showed a blood test from a third baby being cared for by Letby at Chester in November 2015 also recorded very high levels of insulin and low levels of C-peptide.
Tests later revealed the baby had congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) – a condition where the body naturally produces too much insulin.
But four experts said that CHI could not explain such an exceptionally high insulin reading for the infant – pointing to Letby’s potential guilt.
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Letby used insulin and air to inject newborns in a year-long killing spree while working on the neo-natal ward at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
The collapses and deaths of 13 children were not “naturally-occurring tragedies” but instead the work of “poisoner” Letby, the court heard.
She was convicted of seven counts of murder and attempting to kill six more following a nine-month trial and 22 days of jury deliberation in 2023.
Months later, a second trial saw her convicted of a seventh attempted murder.
She had wept as the first set of verdicts was delivered, but refused to enter court as the case was brought to a close.
REPEATED TARGETS AND ‘COMMON DENOMINATOR’
During a mammoth trial, jurors were told some of the newborns were repeatedly targeted by the nurse – including one baby Letby is alleged to have killed after three previous failed attempts.
Her reign of terror was finally uncovered after staff grew suspicious of the “significant rise” in the number of babies dying or suffering “catastrophic” collapses.
Letby was found to be the “common denominator” among the deaths and collapses.
HAUNTING NOTES AND OBSESSIVE TEXTS
Police searched her three-bedroom home in Chester on July 3, 2018, after she was arrested and discovered a chilling cache of evidence.
The nurse had scribbled haunting notes in diaries and on Post-It notes, including one that read: “I am evil I did this.”
The note added: “I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them.
“I am a horrible person.”
Other notes were declarations of love for a doctor colleague, who cannot be identified, that she repeatedly confided in as her death toll rose.
There were also some that bore the messages “Kill me” and “Help me” along with the names of some the babies she murdered.
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In one, Letby scrawled: “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live like this.
“No one will ever understand or appreciate what’s like.”
She also wrote “I loved you”, adding: “I wanted you to stand by me but you didn’t.”
It was this married doctor who became her “best friend” while she was murdering babies that caused the only sign of emotion in the calculating nurse.
The medic broke down in court as her “sweetie” gave evidence against her and attempted to leave the dock.
In texts exchanged between the pair, he told her she was “one of a few nurses I would trust with my own children”.
But Letby’s fixation with her colleague led her on a sinister path of “attention-seeking” as she sought to make sure she would not be forgotten.
FATAL INJECTIONS
Between 2015 and 2016, two babies on the neo-natal unit were “deliberately” poisoned with insulin, which was “no accident”.
Some of the other babies were killed or harmed when air or milk was injected into their bloodstream or via a tube in their stomachs.
In some cases, Letby allegedly took up to three attempts before she managed to kill some of her victims.
Women who kill – how Letby has joined the ranks of the UK’s worst female serial killers
LUCY Letby’s horrific murder spree has gained her the grisly moniker of one of Britain’s most prolific female serial killers
Here’s how the nurse’s death toll of seven babies ranks among other sadistic women who kill.
Rose West
Along with husband Fred West, Rose abducted, tortured and raped her victims before burying them at their house of horrors in Gloucester.
She was convicted of ten murders, including stepdaughter Charmaine, eight, and daughter Heather, 16.
Myra Hindley
Branded the “most evil woman in Britain”, Hindley teamed up with monster Ian Brady to kill five children in the 1960s.
The twisted couple buried their victims on Saddleworth Moor but never revealed the location of 12-year-old Keith Bennett.
Hindley died in jail in 2002 after spending 36 years behind bars.
Beverley Allitt
Like fellow nurse Letby, Allitt embarked on a gruesome, 59-day killing spree.
The nurse murdered four children and grievously injured many others while at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital.
She was handed 13 life sentences in 1993 and is now languishing at Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire.
Joanna Dennehy
Known as the Peterborough Ditch Murders, the monster killed three men over a ten-day period before dumping their bodies.
While on the run from police, Dennehy taunted police by attempting to kill two others.
She smirked as she was one of two women, the other being Rose West, to ever be handed a whole life tariff – meaning she will die behind bars.
One mum told the jury: “I could hear my son crying, and it was like nothing I’d heard before.
“It was more a scream than a cry – a sound that shouldn’t come from a tiny baby. It was horrendous.”
She also murdered another child, one of triplets, by injecting him with a lethal dose of air and inflicting trauma to his liver.
The nurse had returned to work that day after a week’s holiday to Ibiza with two friends.
Letby messaged a colleague saying she would “probably be back in with a bang lol”.
TWISTED RELATIONSHIPS WITH PARENTS
The nurse, who had special training in caring for ICU babies, showed an “unusual interest” in searching for her victims’ families on social media.
She also sent a sympathy card to a mum of a baby she allegedly murdered on the fourth attempt as she attempted to craft twisted relationships with her victims’ parents.
Premature baby girl – Child I – was born weighing just 2lbs 2oz.
After her death, the baby’s mum told how Letby was “smiling and kept going on about how she was present at Child I’s first bath and how much Child I had loved it”, it was said.
She also photographed a thank you card from the parents of two of her alleged victims as “something to remember”.
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And she searched the name of the twins’ mum on Facebook nine times between Child E’s death and January 2016.
She said it was a “normal pattern of behaviour” for her to look for the parents of babies she had treated more than once on Facebook.
Away from the “cover of trust” she hid beneath was a cold-hearted killer who showed “no emotion” towards the tragic babies.
Described as “beige” by police, there was nothing spectacular about the church-going nurse that suggested at first she could be behind the killings.
UNEXPECTED DETERIORATION AND RECOVERY
But post-January 2015, the number of baby deaths and catastrophic collapses at the hospital significantly rose and links started to become clear.
Consultants grew concerned when they realised the children who died had “deteriorated unexpectedly”.
The babies who collapsed also did not respond to appropriate and timely resuscitation.
Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said some of the babies “who did not die collapsed dramatically but then – equally dramatically – recovered”.
The charges Letby was convicted on in full
Child A, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby injected air intravenously into the bloodstream of the baby boy. COUNT 1 GUILTY.
Child B, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby attempted to murder the baby girl, the twin sister of Child A, by injecting air into her bloodstream. COUNT 2 GUILTY.
Child C, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said Letby forced air down a feeding tube and into the stomach of the baby boy. COUNT 3 GUILTY.
Child D, allegation of murder. The Crown said air was injected intravenously into the baby girl. COUNT 4 GUILTY.
Child E, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby murdered the twin baby boy with an injection of air into the bloodstream and also deliberately caused bleeding to the infant. COUNT 5 GUILTY.
Child F, allegation of attempted murder. Letby was said by prosecutors to have poisoned the twin brother of Child E with insulin. COUNT 6 GUILTY.
Child G, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby targeted the baby girl by overfeeding her with milk and pushing air down her feeding tube. COUNT 7 GUILTY, COUNT 8 GUILTY, COUNT 9 NOT GUILTY.
Child H, two allegations of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby sabotaged the care of the baby girl in some way which led to two profound oxygen desaturations. COUNT 10 NOT GUILTY, COUNT 11 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child I, allegation of murder. The prosecution said Letby killed the baby girl at the fourth attempt and had given her air and overfed her with milk. COUNT 12 GUILTY.
Child J, allegation of attempted murder. No specific form of harm was identified by the prosecution but they said Letby did something to cause the collapse of the baby girl. COUNT 13 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child K, allegation of attempted murder. The prosecution said Letby compromised the baby girl as she deliberately dislodged a breathing tube. COUNT 14 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child L, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said the nurse poisoned the twin baby boy with insulin. COUNT 15 GUILTY.
Child M, allegation of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby injected air into the bloodstream of Child L’s twin brother. COUNT 16 GUILTY.
Child N, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby inflicted trauma in the baby boy’s throat and also injected him with air in the bloodstream. COUNT 17 GUILTY, COUNT 18 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT, COUNT 19 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child O, allegation of murder. Prosecutors say Letby attacked the triplet boy by injecting him with air, overfeeding him with milk and inflicting trauma to his liver with “severe force”. COUNT 20 GUILTY.
Child P, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said the nurse targeted the triplet brother of Child O by overfeeding him with milk, injecting air and dislodging his breathing tube. COUNT 21 GUILTY.
Child Q, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby injected the baby boy with liquid, and possibly air, down his feeding tube. COUNT 22 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
This “defied the normal experience of treating doctors”, jurors were told.
The prosecutor continued: “Babies who had not been unstable at all suddenly deteriorated. Sometimes a baby who had been sick but then been on the mend suddenly deteriorated for no apparent reason.
“Having searched for a cause, which they were unable to find, the consultants noticed that the inexplicable collapses and deaths did have one common denominator.
“The presence of one of the neo-natal nurses and that nurse was Lucy Letby.”
STANDING OVER BABY’S COT
Victoria Whitfield believes the nurse also attempted to hurt her premature baby in November 2013.
Her tot, Felicity, had been in the neonatal unit in the Countess of Chester Hospital after being born by emergency caesarean.
Victoria and her husband Mike had been told she was “doing brilliantly” – but the next day they were informed their daughter was gravely unwell.
Victoria told The Times: “It was about 3am, I was up in my room. I don’t know what it was, call it mother’s instinct. I felt I needed to go down to the neonatal unit. I walked in — everything seemed quite calm.
“Lucy Letby was by [the cot] and then she walked out into the other room. I went to have a look at Felicity and within minutes all hell broke loose. It was like I wasn’t in the room — but there were nurses running around everywhere.”
The terrified parents were told by medical staff that they did not think Felicity would survive.
Mike said: “They told us that if we wanted to get her baptised, that was the time to do it. Because she probably wasn’t going to make it.”
Felicity was moved to Arrowe Park Hospital, less than 20 miles away, for alternative treatment – and immediately her condition improved.
CPS reviewing lawyer Pascale Jones said: “Lucy Letby was entrusted to protect some of the most vulnerable babies. Little did those working alongside her know that there was a murderer in their midst.
“She did her utmost to conceal her crimes, by varying the ways in which she repeatedly harmed babies in her care.
“She sought to deceive her colleagues and pass off the harm she caused as nothing more than a worsening of each baby’s existing vulnerability.
“In her hands, innocuous substances like air, milk, fluids – or medication like insulin – would become lethal. She perverted her learning and weaponised her craft to inflict harm, grief and death.
“Time and again, she harmed babies, in an environment which should have been safe for them and their families.”
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