The case of Lucy Letby, a British nurse sentenced to life imprisonment for the deaths of seven newborns, is being reexamined after medical experts raised doubts about the evidence supporting her conviction.
Letby, 35, is currently serving 15 life sentences for killing babies at neonatal units in the northwest of England between 2015 and 2016. She was convicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to kill seven others at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit, becoming the UK’s most prolific serial killer of children in modern history.
However, Letby’s defense team filed a request on Tuesday with the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to investigate whether a miscarriage of justice occurred during her two trials in 2023-24.
Letby, who maintains her innocence, was accused of attacking the babies in various ways, including injecting air into their bloodstreams, causing fatal air embolisms. But Dr. Shoo Lee, a retired Canadian physician who co-authored a 1989 paper on air embolism in babies, argued that the evidence used to convict Letby was incorrect.
At a London news conference, Lee, presenting findings from a panel of 14 international pediatric experts, stated that the evidence did not support the conclusion of murder in any of the cases. The panel suggested that natural causes or medical errors were more likely responsible for the deaths.
Letby’s lawyer, Mark McDonald, argued that she is “sitting in prison for the rest of her life for a crime that never happened.” He added, “The reason why Lucy Letby was convicted was because of the medical evidence presented to the jury. That evidence has now been discredited.”
A spokesperson for the CCRC confirmed that they have received a preliminary application to review Letby’s case and that work has already begun to assess it. If the commission finds grounds for a miscarriage of justice, it has the authority to refer the case back to the Court of Appeal.
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