UK - Nurse Lucy Letby, murder of babies, 7 Guilty of murder verdicts; 8 Guilty of attempted murder; 2 Not Guilty of attempted; 5 hung re attempted #37

[Tortoise]

Peter Skelton KC's closing submissions to the Inquiry, on behalf of families A, B, I, L, M, N & Q -


12:42PM

Concerns about Letby’s convictions based on ‘fragile towers of speculation’​

Mr Skelton said there were ‘multiple problems’ with a report compiled by a team of world-class neonatologists.

“The family’s position is that Lucy Letby has been convicted after a protracted trial during which she has access to the finest criminal legal team and numerous medical experts across all relevant specialisms none of whom were ultimately called to give evidence to support her defence,” he said.

“The Court of Appeal has twice dismissed their applications to appeal. In the first instance comprehensively having heard evidence from the Canadian neonatologist Prof Shoo Lee who is now spearheading her latest team of medical experts.

“Cursory analysis from the report published by those experts identifies multiple problems with their analysis.

“What has been presented with great fanfare is new and incontrovertible evidence turns out to be old and full of analytical holes.”

Mr Skelton said that ‘critical evidence’ from the inquiry had been ignored and dismissed.

“Medical hypotheses were advanced based on fragile towers of speculation,” he said.

“Little or no thought has also been given, it appears, to the dignity or privacy of the families and the babies that the experts have publicly discussed, in stark contrast to the way this inquiry has proceeded.”

1:08PM

Families plead for inquiry to continue​

Richard Baker KC, said Lucy Letby will have a “serious mountain to climb” in convincing the Criminal Cases Review Commission to send her case back to the Court of Appeal.

The barrister, who is representing some of the families, said there was no “incontrovertible” new evidence “which almost immediately exculpates a prisoner” and warned that Letby was “trying to control the narrative”.

“She has already brought two appeals, both of which have failed and her only remaining chance is an application to the CCRC,” he told the hearing.

“We would suggest based upon what has already been through the Court of Appeal that Letby will have a serious mountain to climb in convincing the CCRC or indeed the Court of Appeal that this is fresh evidence.

“The elephant in the room, the one which neither Letby nor her legal team are prepared to explain, is why a defendant would choose not to call their own experts to give evidence.

“A defendant cannot choose not to call their experts at trial and then ask for permission to roll the dice again when the gamble doesn’t pay off.”

Inviting Lady Justice Thirwall not to pause the inquiry, he added: “The families would say that for all the bells and whistles that might be attached to a press conference, there is nothing remarkable and new about the evidence being presented. The theories may have altered but this could hardly be said to be new evidence.

“The families will say that the applications to stop the inquiry are on Letby’s part an attempt to control the narrative, and on the part of the executives to avoid criticism and neither should stand in the way of the important work that you are undertaking.”

Lucy Letby latest: Hospital managers appeal for end to inquiry

Former managers at Lucy Letby’s hospital have called for the public inquiry into her crimes to be halted, arguing there is a “real possibility” her convictions will be quashed.

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[mrC]

i hope the farce does by continuing its just showing what a farce it is

 

[mrC]

new from the telgraph Lucy Letby latest: Hospital managers appeal for end to inquiry

 

[marynnu]

Being a nurse myself I think that other nurses that have a suspicion of babies dying when another nurse has been on duty over a period of time should have been noticed and reported to management immediately.It shouldn't have taken so long and so many deaths to occur before she was caught and investigated.I hope health facilities have been put on notice to have suspicions of other health care people reported right away..

I don't think they were in a position to see the bigger picture though. And even if you noticed a correlation, what could you realistically do with that? It's a massive leap to start thinking the worst & report this to your manager about one if her favourites. I doubt they even thought she was up to no good.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

“There now appears to be a real likelihood that there are alternative explanations for these deaths and unexplained collapses, namely poor clinical management and care and natural causes,” Ms. Blackwell said. To continue the inquiry without considering these alternative explanations, she argued, “defeats the very purpose of any public inquiry which must be to fully and fearlessly understand the circumstances in which these babies came to die.”

Lucy Letby Murders Inquiry Should Be Halted, Hospital’s Ex-Managers Say

Former executives at the British hospital where Ms. Letby was a nurse requested that a judge’s inquiry into the killings there be suspended amid new evidence.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Tortoise]

2:59PM

Victims’ families hit out at public sympathy for Letby​

The families of babies who died at the Countess of Chester have condemned the “media circus” surrounding attempts to free Letby.

In a written statement published on the inquiry website, Mother C, whose son died in June 2015, said attempts to pause the inquiry were “self-serving”.

“The media PR campaign aimed to garner public sympathy for Letby demonstrates a complete lack of understanding for Letby’s crimes and the complexity of the case,” she said.

“The misinformed and inaccurate media circus surrounding this case, our son and the other babies is potentiating the distress of all of the families involved.”

She added: “There is absolutely no doubt that the actions of senior management delayed justice and their accounts and weak words of condolence demonstrate their lack of true reflection on the mistakes they made.

“The executives’ attempt to halt the inquiry shows their own self-serving intentions and ongoing lack of respect or care for the families. “

Lucy Letby latest: Hospital managers appeal for end to inquiry

Former managers at Lucy Letby’s hospital have called for the public inquiry into her crimes to be halted, arguing there is a “real possibility” her convictions will be quashed.

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Tortoise]

3:11PM

Letby press conference plunged family into ‘depths of distress and upset’​

Family G, whose daughter survived, also said they had been left upset by recent publicity surrounding Letby’s guilt.

In a statement published on the inquiry’s website, Richard Baker KC wrote: “Family G’s resilience has been repeatedly tested to the limit.

“The recent news conference conducted by Letby’s new legal team has once again plunged the family into the depths of distress and upset.

“Whilst family G do not deny people’s right to follow the relevant legal processes as they see fit, the way in which Letby’s new legal team have conducted this as a campaign through a media circus, has exacerbated the harm and hurt that the family have been living through since the first days of their child’s attacks and finding out that they were all caused by the malevolent acts of Letby.

“Family G is utterly convinced of the guilt of Letby but now have to avoid watching the television, listening to the radio, reading newspapers and online articles and accessing social media to protect themselves from the mostly inaccurate and often biased and toxic messages that are being reported and published.”

Lucy Letby latest: Hospital managers appeal for end to inquiry

Former managers at Lucy Letby’s hospital have called for the public inquiry into her crimes to be halted, arguing there is a “real possibility” her convictions will be quashed.

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Tortoise]

3:43PM

Letby’s lawyers responsible for ‘hyperbolic’ press conferences and ‘publicity grabbing statements’​

Mr Baker KC said that the ‘common goal’ of the families was to seek change so that ‘others don’t go through what they have been through.’

“That isn’t limited simply to avoiding the next serial killer in a healthcare setting but about changing patient safety culture,” he added.

In written submissions about the request to pause the inquiry, Mr Baker said that Letby’s defence team had sought to ‘achieve maximum dramatic effect’ with ‘hyperbolic’ press conferences and ‘publicity grabbing statements.’

“The key deception in Letby’s approach in holding press conferences is that she can present evidence without the risk that it will be analysed, challenged or questioned,” he said

“It permits her to control the narrative without having to explain why she chose not to call that evidence at trial. It is not new evidence but rather a re-hash of evidence that was available to her at trial and which could have been called in her defence, had she been willing to subject that evidence to scrutiny.”

Mr Baker KC said the submissions had been provided in an annex to to reflect that they were prepared without the input of Simon Driver - who is representing the families, but was also junior prosecuting counsel at Letby’s trials and during both appeals to the Court of Appeal

“If the case is referred back to the Court of Appeal he will be junior counsel for the Crown at that appeal,” said Mr Baker.

Lucy Letby latest: Hospital managers appeal for end to inquiry

Former managers at Lucy Letby’s hospital have called for the public inquiry into her crimes to be halted, arguing there is a “real possibility” her convictions will be quashed.

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[May72031]

The LL case seems to be so highly charged and people who do not know the whole story have accepted viewpoints that have solidified that it is difficult to have any type of conversation about developments. I personally think that such a high profile case has been poorly handled and reported on. It is likely that LL is guilty but there are doubts and her Defence Team did not seem to do a very good job. There have been some high profile cases of innocent people being found guilty in recent years after spending long periods in jail. Could this be another example that will be exposed in the future?

It has certainly been poorly reported on post-trial, especially the claims made by McDonald's group of "eminent experts". Seems quite a few "journalists" are starstruck by this group and their claims.

People who actually followed the trial are far less impressed by McDonald and his team.

 

[Tortoise]

Child serial killer Lucy Letby is continuing to attempt to “control the narrative” in requesting the suspension of the public inquiry over her crimes, say families of her victims.


On Tuesday, their lawyers told inquiry chairwoman Lady Justice Thirlwall that the former neo-natal nurse had cynically tried to shift the focus by pleading her own victim-hood from the moment that she faced accusations of deliberating harming babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016.

The families also said that recent medical evidence presented on her behalf with “great fanfare” as new and incontrovertible “turns out to be old and full of analytical holes”.

[...]

“The families note that her counsel appears regularly in the media, is rarely asked a question and when he is refuses to answer.

“The only reason why a defendant would choose not to call their own experts to give evidence is because they know that those experts, if tested in court, would be likely to convict them.

“A defendant cannot choose to call their experts at trial and then ask for permission to roll the dice again when the gamble doesn’t pay off. That is the definition of expert shopping.”

Peter Skelton, representing a second group of families, said a “cursory analysis” of the reports published by the 14-strong panel of experts last month, identify “multiple problems”.


[...]

Lady Justice Thirlwall adjourned the hearing until 12pm on Wednesday when she will give her closing remarks and “if appropriate” will give her decision on the applications to pause the inquiry.

Lucy Letby ‘continuing to try to control the narrative’, say families of victims

An international panel working for Letby’s defence said bad medical care and and natural causes were the reasons for the collapses and deaths.

www.theargus.co.uk

 

[May72031]

“There now appears to be a real likelihood that there are alternative explanations for these deaths and unexplained collapses, namely poor clinical management and care and natural causes,” Ms. Blackwell said. To continue the inquiry without considering these alternative explanations, she argued, “defeats the very purpose of any public inquiry which must be to fully and fearlessly understand the circumstances in which these babies came to die.”

Lucy Letby Murders Inquiry Should Be Halted, Hospital’s Ex-Managers Say

Former executives at the British hospital where Ms. Letby was a nurse requested that a judge’s inquiry into the killings there be suspended amid new evidence.

www.nytimes.com

The insulin cases can't be "natural causes", though. "Poor clinical management" also doesn't explain any of the deaths.

 

[joltz]

closing statements from senior management https://thirlwall.public-inquiry.uk...n-of-Senior-Management-Team-07-March-2025.pdf

Are you going to provide a link for the closing statements for the parents, or is that not part of your remit?
JMO

 

[May72031]

Are you going to provide a link for the closing statements for the parents, or is that not part of your remit?
JMO

Don't get your hopes up...

 

[Anxala]

The LL case seems to be so highly charged and people who do not know the whole story have accepted viewpoints that have solidified that it is difficult to have any type of conversation about developments. I personally think that such a high profile case has been poorly handled and reported on. It is likely that LL is guilty but there are doubts and her Defence Team did not seem to do a very good job. There have been some high profile cases of innocent people being found guilty in recent years after spending long periods in jail. Could this be another example that will be exposed in the future?

Respectfully, if you'd followed the trial, you'd know that her defence team did the best job it could do with the material it was given. And also, if you'd followed the trial and the Thirlwall Inquiry, you'd be seeing the current activity/reporting for the grandstanding offensive mess that it is.

People who don't know the whole story are the real problem here because they've actively chosen not to know the whole story.

 

[WaneLyrical]

Respectfully, if you'd followed the trial, you'd know that her defence team did the best job it could do with the material it was given. And also, if you'd followed the trial and the Thirlwall Inquiry, you'd be seeing the current activity/reporting for the grandstanding offensive mess that it is.

People who don't know the whole story are the real problem here because they've actively chosen not to know the whole story.

Where does that leave me then? I followed every day of the trial, I know the whole story, and I’m still of the opinion there’s no case to answer. Reasonable doubt was injected into every single aspect of this case. I still have no idea how the jury, or anyone else, can genuinely be convinced that murders were happening. Making the thirlwall inquiry a complete farce in my opinion.

 

[Anxala]

Where does that leave me then? I followed every day of the trial, I know the whole story, and I’m still of the opinion there’s no case to answer. Reasonable doubt was injected into every single aspect of this case. I still have no idea how the jury, or anyone else, can genuinely be convinced that murders were happening. Making the thirlwall inquiry a complete farce in my opinion.

^ That is absolutely not true.

So I have no idea where that leaves you.

 

[CatsnChickens]

I was given the book Unmasking Lucy Letby and only on ch4 but it is written by two journalists there for the entire trial I would recommend it as reading material for both sides of the fence

 

[Marantz4250b]

Where does that leave me then? I followed every day of the trial, I know the whole story, and I’m still of the opinion there’s no case to answer. Reasonable doubt was injected into every single aspect of this case. I still have no idea how the jury, or anyone else, can genuinely be convinced that murders were happening. Making the thirlwall inquiry a complete farce in my opinion.

There was no doubt that she took home 257 confidential hand-over sheets which should never have left the hospital.

There was no doubt that she made hundreds, probably thousands, of FB searches of families of deceased and affected children.

There was no doubt that she falsified medical notes.

There was no doubt that Dr Jayram watched her doing nothing while a baby desaturated and almost died.

Moreover, respectfully, you are again missing the entire point here; injecting doubt into every piece of evidence, circumstantial evidence, is not the point. It is the totality of the evidence when taken as a whole that matters. The jury concluded that that totality of evidence added up to her being guilty of a series of murders and attempted murders.

 

[Parker Knoll]

The jury clearly didn’t agree with you that reasonable doubt factored into their decisions.
They heard everything, saw every exhibit and analysed each witness.
That is how decisions are reached.
Where that leaves you matters not a jot.

Where does that leave me then? I followed every day of the trial, I know the whole story, and I’m still of the opinion there’s no case to answer. Reasonable doubt was injected into every single aspect of this case. I still have no idea how the jury, or anyone else, can genuinely be convinced that murders were happening. Making the thirlwall inquiry a complete farce in my opinion.

 

[Tortoise]

Where does that leave me then? I followed every day of the trial, I know the whole story, and I’m still of the opinion there’s no case to answer. Reasonable doubt was injected into every single aspect of this case. I still have no idea how the jury, or anyone else, can genuinely be convinced that murders were happening. Making the thirlwall inquiry a complete farce in my opinion.

I think the Court of Appeal ruling answers your question:



37. At the close of the prosecution case a submission of no case to answer was made on the applicant’s behalf...


Ground 2: the judge’s ruling on the submission of no case to answer

131. In his ruling of 2 May 2023 rejecting the submission of no case to answer, the judge referred to the passage in R v Galbraith which we have quoted above, and to the competing arguments of the parties. He expressed his conclusions and his decision as follows in para 13 of his ruling:

“I am satisfied that there is a sufficient body of accepted expert medical opinion that the exogenous administration of air into the venous system can cause air embolus leading to collapse and potentially the death of a baby. Because of the rarity of cases in which air embolus is identified in a fatal collapse there is limited medical literature and research and the level of clinical expertise is also necessarily limited. Professor Arthurs and Dr Marnerides were conspicuously careful not to go further than their specialist expertise would permit them and emphasised any conclusions to be drawn were for those with clinical expertise. The fact that their evidence was not, of itself, diagnostic of air embolus is not determinative as to whether the evidence of clinical neonatologists is admissible. Such criticisms as are made by the defence of Drs Evans and Bohin and the bases for their conclusions are not sufficient to render their evidence inadmissible; the assessment of the validity of the criticisms and the weight to be attached to their opinions is for the jury. In the context of other circumstantial evidence, including the fact that, in the cases of two other babies not the subject of these applications someone in the NNU deliberately sought to harm them by adding insulin to their nutrition and the circumstances and coincidence of the defendant’s presence in the unit on each of the occasions of the sudden collapse of a baby, in some cases at the cot or incubator side, and her admissions, I am satisfied that the evidence sought to be excluded is admissible expert evidence for the jury to consider. I am also satisfied that, in respect of Counts 1, 2, 4 and 16, there is a body of evidence on which the jury, depending on their findings of fact and the inferences they draw, could properly come to the conclusion that the defendant is guilty. I refuse the application for those counts to be withdrawn from being determined by the jury. Similarly, I refuse the application that the evidence of air embolus should be withdrawn from the jury on Counts 3, 5, 12, 17 and 20.”​

[...]

148. In such circumstances, we are wholly unpersuaded that it could not properly be left to the jury to decide whether they were sure, on the basis of all the evidence, that the expert witnesses had rightly excluded other possible causes, had rightly relied upon a number of signs and symptoms (including, but not limited to, skin discolouration) which were consistent with air embolus and collectively inconsistent with anything else, and had correctly concluded that the baby concerned had suffered an air embolus.

[...]

150. For those reasons, ground 2 is not arguable.

151. Although it is not relevant to ground 2, we would add that the applicant herself, when giving evidence, raised the possibility of alternative explanations for the collapse or death of individual babies, but did not give affirmative evidence of an alternative cause. As we have already said, she called no expert evidence to contradict or qualify the opinions of the prosecution experts. Thus the evidence as to medical causation of each baby’s collapse or death was the same at the conclusion of the trial as it was when the submission of no case to answer was made.

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/R-v-Letby-Final-Judgment-20240702.pdf