The former cabinet minister has written to Mark Roberts, chief constable of Cheshire, to make a “formal complaint” against Dr Ravi Jayaram, a consultant paediatrician at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
The complaint focuses on an email that emerged last month and was sent by Jayaram in 2017 regarding the attempted murder of Baby K by Letby, who is serving 15 whole-life orders for killing seven babies and attempting to murder seven more between 2015 and 2016.
Campaigners who believe Letby, 35, from Hereford, was wrongly convicted said the contents of the email appears to contradict evidence the doctor gave in a police statement and then in the witness box, both at her first trial in 2023 and — after the jury failed to reach a verdict — in the retrial in 2024 over the attempted murder of Baby K.
Jayaram was the only medical witness able to point to behaviour directly linking the former nurse to the babies’ deaths, testifying that he discovered her standing over Baby K’s cot as the girl’s health was deteriorating and that she did not call for help. Baby K later died.
At the 2024 trial, the prosecution alleged that Letby had deliberately dislodged a breathing tube from the baby’s mouth.
Jayaram said of the incident: “Lucy Letby was stood next to the incubator. She wasn’t looking at me. She didn’t have her hands in the incubator.”
After he was asked by prosecuting counsel Nick Johnson KC whether he had heard “any call for help from Lucy Letby?” he responded: “No, not at all. I was surprised that the alarm was not going off, although my priority was [Baby K] and I didn’t question it at the time.
“In retrospect, I was surprised that help was not called, given [Baby K] was a 25-week gestation baby and her saturations were dropping.”
The prosecution alleged that Jayaram had caught Letby “virtually red-handed”.
In a police witness statement made on April 17, 2018, Jayaram also said: “It is also the case that Lucy had not called me in to Nursery 1 at the point that desaturation had taken place. Quite often a nurse will come looking for a doctor to assist when a baby begins to deteriorate. Lucy didn’t.”
However, last month an email emerged that had been sent to some staff at the Countess of Chester on May 4, 2017 — before Letby was investigated by police. In it Jayaram wrote: “At time of deterioration … staff nurse Letby at incubator and called Dr Jayaram to inform of low saturations.”
In the same email, which was obtained by the Unherd website, Jayaram also suggested that Baby K’s frailty was the cause of death, saying: “Baby subsequently deteriorated and eventually died, but events around this would fit with explainable events associated with extreme prematurity.”
Neither Jayaram’s claim that Letby called him for help, nor that he thought the baby’s death was explained by issues associated with extreme prematurity, made it into the final version of the document that consultants sent to the police.
In the letter he sent last week to Chief Constable Roberts, Davis claimed there was a “clear and concerning discrepancy between Jayaram’s sworn evidence and contemporaneous documents of the events”.
In a police witness statement made on April 17, 2018, Jayaram also said: “It is also the case that Lucy had not called me in to Nursery 1 at the point that desaturation had taken place. Quite often a nurse will come looking for a doctor to assist when a baby begins to deteriorate. Lucy didn’t.”
However, last month an email emerged that had been sent to some staff at the Countess of Chester on May 4, 2017 — before Letby was investigated by police. In it Jayaram wrote: “At time of deterioration … staff nurse Letby at incubator and called Dr Jayaram to inform of low saturations.”
In the same email, which was obtained by the Unherd website, Jayaram also suggested that Baby K’s frailty was the cause of death, saying: “Baby subsequently deteriorated and eventually died, but events around this would fit with explainable events associated with extreme prematurity.”
Neither Jayaram’s claim that Letby called him for help, nor that he thought the baby’s death was explained by issues associated with extreme prematurity, made it into the final version of the document that consultants sent to the police.
In the letter he sent last week to Chief Constable Roberts, Davis claimed there was a “clear and concerning discrepancy between Jayaram’s sworn evidence and contemporaneous documents of the events”.
Davis claimed the 2017 email “would have been of substantial relevance to Letby’s retrial [but] was not disclosed by Cheshire police to Letby’s defence team until after she had received her sentence”.“The implications of this are serious,” the Tory MP wrote in his letter. “The jury in her trial may have reached its verdict on the basis of misleading or incomplete testimony.
“Given that Dr Jayaram’s statements formed a critical part of the prosecution’s case, I believe there is compelling public interest in determining whether perjury may have been committed. I am therefore making a formal complaint against Dr Jayaram. Cheshire constabulary now has a clear obligation to launch a formal perjury investigation into Dr Jayaram’s testimony, or alternatively confirm whether such an investigation is already under way.”
He added: “This matter goes beyond the outcome of a single trial; it touches on public confidence in the integrity of our criminal justice system, in particular the requirement to tell the truth under oath in court and the duty of full and fair disclosure during prosecution.”
Jayaram, a respected consultant who in 2015 co-presented Born Naughty?, a Channel 4 TV series about children with behavioural problems, was one of a group of doctors at Countess of Chester who were forced to apologise to Letby after she was initially removed from some duties on the ward when concerns were first raised about the high number of baby deaths.
Lawyers for the families of Letby’s victims have rubbished findings of the 14-strong international panel as “full of analytical holes” and “a rehash” of the defence case heard at trial.
A separate internal email from May 2017 sent to staff at the hospital has also emerged that shows Jayaram raising the “abnormal behaviour” of Letby.
Jayaram was approached for comment but did not respond.
Cheshire Constabulary said: “The chief constable has received the letter, this has been reviewed and he will be responding in due course addressing all the concerns raised.”
