Hospital executives call for suspension of Lucy Letby public inquiry
Inquiry chair Lady Justice Thirlwall said she had received the request last month.
Former senior executives at the Countess of Chester Hospital have asked for the public inquiry into the events surrounding the crimes of Lucy Letby to be suspended.
Inquiry chair Lady Justice Thirlwall said she had received the request last month from counsel for the management team at the time that killer nurse Letby attacked babies in 2015 and 2016.
Lawyers representing chief executive Tony Chambers, medical director Ian Harvey, director of nursing Alison Kelly and HR director Sue Hodkinson made the application weeks after an international panel of neonatologists and paediatric specialists said that bad medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the collapses and deaths on the neo-natal unit.
This week, the Thirlwall Inquiry is hearing closing submissions from the various interested parties, including the families of Letby’s victims, following the conclusion of the evidence at the hearings which began last September.
Lady Justice Thirlwall is due to publish her final report this autumn.
On Monday, she disclosed the request made on behalf of the former hospital executives whose lawyers have also written to the Secretary of State for Health to seek a suspension of the inquiry.
She said a similar plea had also been received from Conservative MP David Davis, who has previously described Letby’s convictions as “one of the major injustices of modern times”.
Submissions will be heard on the topic later at Liverpool Town Hall, along with the closing statements.
The Guardian reported it had seen the letter sent by Letby’s solicitors to Lady Justice Thirlwall which warned that her final report would “not only be redundant but likely unreliable” if it was not put on hold until after the conclusion of the former nurse’s CCRC application.
The letter said: “It is estimated that over £10 million has been spent so far on the inquiry. It is now clear there is overwhelming and compelling evidence that Lucy Letby’s convictions are unsafe.
“For the inquiry to be effective and that taxpayers’ money not be wasted, we urge that the inquiry be suspended and to wait for the outcome of the review to take place.”
Cheshire Constabulary has been carrying out an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the Countess of Chester 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 said 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 probe into deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neo-natal units of both 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.
