Convicted murderer Lucy Letby calls for suspension of public inquiry
A panel working for the former nurse’s defence team said bad medical care and natural causes were behind collapses and deaths on a neonatal unit.
Convicted child serial killer Lucy Letby has called for the public inquiry into events surrounding her crimes to be suspended.
On Monday her solicitors wrote to inquiry chairwoman Lady Justice Thirlwall with concerns that her final report – due to be published in the autumn – would “not only be redundant but likely unreliable” unless it was paused pending the outcome of the former nurse’s battle to clear her name.
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.
The letter, seen by the PA news agency, said: “The terms of reference of the inquiry were drafted on the basis that Lucy Letby is guilty and therefore will not consider any evidence which contradicts this.
“If, given the overwhelming evidence that the convictions are unsafe, they are overturned, then any report produced by the inquiry will be based on the wrong premise.
“This error will pollute the very nature of the report and any conclusions or indeed recommendations will be of little value. In short, it will defeat the purpose of a public inquiry, to fully and fearlessly understand the circumstances in which the babies died or became unwell.”
It added: “It is likely that the CCRC will not take long to consider the application before referring it back to the Court of Appeal. It is worth noting that although the CCRC has been under criticism for the delay in processing applications, when there is clear and definitive evidence that convictions are unsafe, as there is here, a decision to refer the convictions to the Court of Appeal is rightly undertaken expeditiously.
“It is estimated that over £10 million has been spent so far on the inquiry.
Lady Justice Thirlwall said she had also received a request to halt the inquiry on behalf of former hospital executives whose lawyers have also written to the Secretary of State for Health to seek its suspension.
She added a similar plea had been made in writing by Conservative MP David Davis, who has previously described Letby’s convictions as “one of the major injustices of modern times”.
This week, the Thirlwall Inquiry is hearing closing submissions from interested parties after the conclusion of evidence at the hearings which began last September at Liverpool Town Hall.
Lawyers representing the hospital’s senior management team from the relevant period – chief executive Tony Chambers, medical director Ian Harvey, director of nursing Alison Kelly and HR director Sue Hodkinson – will explain their reasons on Tuesday for wanting a pause to the inquiry.
Families of Letby’s victims will then give their views on the subject through their barristers.
He told the hearing: “We do not believe that a possibility of a referral by the CCRC to the Court Appeal warrants a pause in proceedings.
“Letby’s convictions stand. They have been tested in two unsuccessful appeals.
“A postponement, which would necessarily be of indeterminate length, is not warranted and it would serve to delay the implementations of recommendations which unhappily the evidence in this inquiry have demonstrated are desperately needed.”
Mr Kennedy added that at the start of the inquiry the trust had conceded failings from March 2016 in terms of the immediate response to the concerns about the increase in mortality and the association with Letby.
However he said the trust now accepts the timeframe should be brought forward in light of the evidence to the inquiry which he said suggested concerns among paediatricians had developed to a point that action was required after the death of Child I, a baby girl, in late October 2015.
Mr Kennedy said: “We accept that the correct course of action at the end of October 2015 was for Letby to be excluded from the neonatal unit.
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.
Cheshire Constabulary have been carrying out an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the hospital and last week said the probe had widened to gross negligence manslaughter.
The force said suspects had been identified and notified in connection with the investigation into baby deaths between 2012 and 2016.
Cheshire Constabulary added that the investigation did not impact on Letby’s convictions for murder and attempted murder.
Letby’s barrister Mark McDonald said the expert medical evidence compiled by her defence team “points the finger in a very different direction” from where the police are looking.
A separate police investigation into deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neonatal units of the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital during Letby’s time as a nurse between 2012 to 2016 is also ongoing.
The inquiry resumes on Tuesday.
