Real possibility that Letby’s convictions may be overturned, say former bosses
Former senior hospital managers have called for the public inquiry to be halted after Letby’s case was passed to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
The public inquiry into the crimes of Lucy Letby should be halted because of a “real possibility” that her convictions for murder and attempted murder may be overturned, say former hospital executives.
Senior managers at the Countess of Chester Hospital at the time of her attack spree on babies at its neonatal unit want the Thirlwall Inquiry to be put on hold until the former nurse’s legal battle to clear her name is resolved.
On Tuesday, their barrister, Kate Blackwell KC, told chairwoman Lady Justice Thirlwall that Letby’s convictions and whole life sentences were the “bedrock” of the inquiry’s terms of reference but that was “in real danger of dissolving into a beach of shifting sands”.
Last month, an international panel of neonatologists and paediatric specialists, working pro bono for her defence team, said bad medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the collapses and deaths attributed to Letby on the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit in 2015 and 2016.
Those findings will be passed to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, and the former nurse’s legal team hope her case will eventually be referred back to the Court of Appeal after two previous failed bids.
Ms Blackwell, representing former chief executive Tony Chambers, former medical director Ian Harvey, former director of nursing Alison Kelly and former HR director Sue Hodkinson, said the panel of 14 experts were “distinguished and recognised leaders in their field”.
She said: “At face value the new evidence merits, and is therefore being given, serious consideration by the CCRC. However, it is for the CCRC alone to assess the evidence and it would be wholly inappropriate either for the inquiry or core participants to seek to usurp the function of the CCRC in that regard.
“But where there is a real possibility that Letby’s convictions may be referred by the CCRC to the Court of Appeal and there quashed, to ignore this procedure which is now in process, we say, would potentially lead to unfairness.
“If the inquiry is determined to continue to its conclusions … it will currently do so in the absence of considering these alternative hypotheses that are now being raised, and in doing so it may be disregarding serious issues that have been identified in the provision of care at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
“If there is evidence to indicate that there are alternative explanations then it is wrong, we respectfully submit, for the inquiry to ignore this because it is inconvenient.”
She added: “If this inquiry is a search for the truth, there is now, it seems, evidence being provided to the CCRC that the causes of death may be different, that the juries in the criminal proceedings may have been presented with a misleading and incomplete picture and this inquiry should consider carefully, we respectfully submit, before producing a report based upon the bedrock of Letby’s convictions.
“While the awaited decision of the CCRC cannot be predicted in time or decision, the increasing concern expressed by world-class experts that the prosecution case was based on medical misunderstandings and poor expert evidence, and other concerns raised that evidence was withheld from the jury, are in real danger of dissolving that bedrock into a beach of shifting sands.”
She denied claims that the senior managers were “attempting opportunistically” to seek to suspend the inquiry’s work.
Ms Blackwell said that any consideration of the alternatives to deliberate harm and the extent to which they may well be held responsible for poor clinical care on the neo-natal unit would “not necessarily exonerate them”.
The former hospital executives have also written to Health Secretary Wes Streeting to ask him to suspend the inquiry – which has heard all its evidence – ahead of a final report from Lady Justice Thirlwall due to be published in the autumn.
In the letter, they stated: “We are mindful of the impact that these terrible events have had upon the families of those babies and the significant period of time that they have had to wait for the outcome of the criminal trials and this public Inquiry.
“However, it is imperative that time is taken to pause and reflect on recent developments which directly relate to matters at the heart of this Inquiry.”
Letby, through her legal team, has also asked for the public inquiry to be paused, otherwise it would be “redundant and likely unreliable”.
Letby, 35, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted across two trials at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.
