Chair of UK inquiry into nurse Letby murders rejects calls
20/3/2025 6:09
The chair of British public
inquiry examining how Lucy Letby was able to murder seven babies
in her care on Wednesday rejected calls for her investigation to
be paused until a review body had considered if the nurse's
convictions should be re-examined.
Letby was jailed for the remainder of her life after being
found guilty of murdering seven children and attempting to
murder eight more while working in the neonatal unit of the
Countess of Chester Hospital in northern England.
But her case has become a cause celebre after medical
experts and other specialists publicly challenged the
prosecution evidence used to convict her.
After failing with previous appeals, Letby's lawyers last
month made a preliminary application to the Criminal Cases
Review Commission, which examines potential miscarriages of
justice, arguing this new evidence meant her convictions were
unsafe.
At the conclusion of hearings at an inquiry into the
failures that led to the deaths, its chair, senior judge Kathryn
Thirlwall, said she had rejected calls by lawyers for hospital
managers and Letby's legal team, and from a prominent lawmaker
for her work to be suspended pending the CCRC outcome.
"The inquiry does not become unfair, because there is a
possibility, as it is asserted, that all the convictions are
unsafe," Thirlwall said.
Lawyers representing the babies' families had said on
Tuesday that there was nothing remarkable about the new evidence
casting doubt over the convictions.
"It is also not uncommon for cases of alleged miscarriages
of justice to be brought before the media in a blaze of
publicity only for the evidence in support of them to flicker
and falter," lawyer Richard Baker said.
"Whatever side of the debate people are on, people should
remember that the dead and harmed are not public property to be
dissected on television or on the internet."
Thirlwall said she would start writing her report on
Thursday and aimed to publish it in November.
|