Attorneys for former senior executives on the Countess of Chester Hospital in northern England have requested for a halt to the general public inquiry into the murders of infants by Lucy Letby, a former nurse, citing new proof that they mentioned referred to as her guilt into query.
Talking in entrance of the inquiry on Tuesday, Kate Blackwell, a lawyer representing these executives, mentioned that new proof that has emerged in latest months instructed that the infants that died or collapsed unexpectedly in 2015 and 2016 had not been deliberately harmed however had died of different causes.
“There now seems to be an actual chance that there are different explanations for these deaths and unexplained collapses, specifically poor scientific administration and care and pure causes,” Ms. Blackwell mentioned. To proceed the inquiry with out contemplating these different explanations, she argued, “defeats the very goal of any public inquiry which have to be to completely and fearlessly perceive the circumstances by which these infants got here to die.”
Ms. Letby, 35, a former nurse in a neonatal unit on the Countess of Chester Hospital in northern England, was discovered responsible in two trials in 2023 and 2024 of the homicide and tried homicide of 14 infants in her care. She has all the time maintained her innocence. After Ms. Letby was discovered responsible, Britain’s well being secretary introduced a public inquiry — an official investigation performed by a decide, with hearings in public — to find how a serial killer might get away with such crimes for therefore lengthy.
Crucially, the inquiry was predicated on Ms. Letby’s guilt, at the same time as critical questions started to be raised final yr over the validity of her convictions, first in a 13,000-word New Yorker article in Could, then by dozens of statisticians and medical specialists.
Final month, an impartial panel of neonatal specialists mentioned that it had discovered no proof that Ms. Letby had murdered or tried to kill any of the infants in her care. As an alternative, “in all instances demise or harm have been because of pure causes or simply unhealthy medical care,” the pinnacle of the panel, Dr. Shoo Lee, instructed a information convention.
Ms. Letby has exhausted all of her authorized appeals within the courts. However final month, a lawyer for Ms. Letby filed a preliminary utility to Britain’s Prison Instances Evaluate Fee, an impartial physique that’s chargeable for investigating claims of miscarriage of justice, and that may refer instances again to the Court docket of Attraction.
In her request to halt the inquiry on Tuesday, Ms. Blackwell represented the senior administration workforce of the Countess of Chester Hospital, together with Ian Harvey, its former medical director; Alison Kelly, the previous director of nursing; Antony Chambers, the hospital’s former chief government; and Susan Hodkinson, its former director of individuals.
Ms. Blackwell pointed to the report from Dr. Lee’s panel as a purpose to pause the inquiry, alongside Ms. Letby’s utility to the Prison Instances Evaluate Fee.
“This new proof deserves and is subsequently being given critical consideration by the C.C.R.C.,” Ms. Blackwell mentioned. “The place there’s a actual risk, as seems to be the case right here, that Ms. Letby’s convictions could also be referred by the C.C.R.C. to the Court docket of Attraction and there quashed, we submit that the inquiry proceedings have to be paused.”
Ms. Blackwell additionally argued that there had been an “overwhelming chance” that recollections contained in witness statements, delivered to the inquiry almost a decade after the occasions examined, had been “tainted” by Ms. Letby’s homicide convictions.
The inquiry — referred to as the Thirlwall Inquiry after the senior decide who’s main it, Kathryn Thirlwall — started final autumn. It’s scheduled to listen to a sequence of closing arguments this week from the attorneys for the core individuals within the proceedings, together with the households of kids who died or have been harmed on the hospital in addition to workers and directors. Justice Thirlwall is anticipated to arrange a report back to be revealed later this yr.
Final week, the Cheshire Constabulary, the police power chargeable for the investigation into Ms. Letby, mentioned it was widening its personal ongoing inquiry into hospital leaders’ response to the fatalities to incorporate an investigation into potential gross negligence manslaughter.
“It is a separate offense to company manslaughter and focuses on the grossly negligent motion or inaction of people,” the police mentioned of their assertion. “You will need to notice that this doesn’t affect on the convictions of Lucy Letby for a number of offenses of homicide and tried homicide.”
Talking forward of the hearings this week, Mark McDonald, the protection lawyer at present representing Ms. Letby, who had filed her enchantment to the Prison Instances Evaluate Fee, mentioned he took concern with the police releasing details about the gross negligence manslaughter investigation.
“Why is it that on the eve of this authorized argument happening that the police issued a press assertion saying they’ll examine?” Mr. McDonald mentioned. “I feel it’s an try to manage the narrative earlier than the authorized argument.”
Talking throughout Tuesday’s listening to, Peter Skelton, a lawyer representing the households of seven infants who have been handled on the hospital, criticized the arguments made by the previous executives, calling their place “smug, self-serving fantasy.”
“Of their proof and within the submissions made by their counsel to this inquiry, they seem to have lived in and to nonetheless be dwelling in an alternate and internally contradictory actuality, one the place no murders and tried murders occurred,” he mentioned.
