QUOTE OF THE DAY: "There were eight months of prosecution evidence before Letby herself was cross-examined. The first person called by the defence to give evidence was the hospital’s plumber. “It was surreal that the moment of knowing there would be no experts was so shocking and unexpected,” Mr Halliday said. It is not known why Letby’s team did not call forward more medical experts, despite having consulted with them. No expert witnesses challenged the insulin test results."
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STORY: "What did the ITV Lucy Letby documentary reveal", by Journalist William Mata, published by LBC (Leading Britain's Conversation), on August 4, 2025.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Lucy Letby upon her arrest: She is now serving several life sentences."
SUB-HEADING: "Lucy Letby’s conviction has been questioned once more with a documentary providing new evidence to cast doubt on whether she killed seven babies.
GIST: "Lucy Letby: Beyond Reasonable Doubt? was shown on Sunday night with a range of experts providing insight that disputed whether she had committed the crimes.
The 35-year-old was convicted of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six more while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit in 2015 and 2016.
It comes after an expert panel claimed in April that “no criminal offences were committed” in Letby’s case.
Former Conservative Party chairman David Davis has told LBC that he is “convinced” that the former nurse was given life in prison due to a “tragedy of error” in light of the ITV programme.
Mr Davis said: "I came to the conclusion that this was probably a tragedy of error."
Letby was arrested in 2018 and is serving 15 whole-life orders after being convicted in 2023.
She lost two bids last year to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal and further charges could yet be brought against her.
Her lawyers have not given up, however, and on the back of the ITV documentary, there could be further efforts to overturn the convictions.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed to ITV that it was considering a file of evidence relating to further allegations in relation to deaths.
A statement read: "Lucy Letby was convicted of 15 separate counts following two jury trials.
"In May 2024, the Court of Appeal dismissed Letby's leave to appeal on all grounds rejecting her argument that expert prosecution evidence was flawed."Here is what the programme said.
Hospital was not equipped to cope with number of babies it received
Letby joined the neonatal unit in 2012 and was one of a dozen members of staff in the department.
Concerns were raised when hospital chiefs noticed a correlation between deaths of babies and Letby being on shift. She was removed from the ward in 2016 and reviews began.
The documentary put forward evidence to show that the Countess of Chester Hospital was required suddenly to take sicker babies than it had done before and could not cope.
In addition, the shift chart showed only fatalities and deterioration during which Letby was present. It did not show all the incidents that occurred during her employment. The documentary showed that the correlation disappears when that is factored in.
Statistician Professor Jane Hutton told ITV: “It doesn’t tell you how the data has been selected, this is aimed to present a conclusion.”
Other suspicious activities around babies on the unit did happen when Letby was on shift, and Professor Hutton said the chart used in evidence was “grossly misleading”.
Mark Mcdonald, a barrister now representing Letby, said there was no direct evidence and the prosecution case was only “an educated guess” gathered by piecing together documents.
Letby’s courtroom performance might have held sway
The Guardian’s Josh Halliday said that Letby showed little emotion in court.
“She presented completely dispassionately, she was expressionless… There were only a couple of moments where she showed emotion. It’s these human moments that figure quite heavily on the jury’s minds.”
Breathing tubes
Dr Ravi Jayaram, a key witness for the prosecution, had asserted that infants could not dislodge tubes themselves that somebody would have needed to do it.
Dr Richard Taylor who, unlike Dr Jayaram, is a neonatal specialist, said that the tube may well have been dislodged by the baby and there is nothing to say that a nurse did it.
The documentary also showed that Letby had called Dr Jayaram when she realised a baby’s oxygen level was dropping, with the doctor having later said that he saw her standing by and doing nothing when this happened.
He was only there, it was said, because she had emailed him. The jury was never told about this.
In another instance, Dr Dewi Evans had also changed his mind on a theory on how Baby C, one of the victims, had died.
It was said she had pumped air into its stomach but he later publicly went against this. He then said he would write a new report, after the murder conviction, and said she had instead injected air into the baby’s veins.
Dr Evans told ITV that his evidence had been agreed by a jury and was subject to cross-examination, and that he could not comment further.
Dr Jayaram was approached for comment by ITV.
Letby had been taught to write down her darkest thoughts
A key piece of evidence was that Letby had written down “hate” and “not good enough” in bold letters. She also wrote: “I am evil, I did this.”
Her friend Dawn said that it had been a training exercise to get thoughts off her mind and that it should not be taken out of context.
Dawn said: “So, all of the dark thoughts, all of those inner voices that you can’t silence. You write it all down on a piece of paper to get it off your mind.”
She added: “Knowing Lucy, I think she wrote it down as a coping strategy for all she was feeling.”
Letby also wrote: “I haven’t done anything wrong” and “Police investigation, slander, discrimination, victimisation.”
Letby went to a friend’s wedding while on bail
Dawn said that she had been at her wedding in 2020 while on bail, having been given permission by the police.
The photos show Letby laughing and dancing. Dawn said she couldn’t believe that her friend had committed the crimes.
Blood tests
A central piece of evidence is that blood tests for two babies showed high levels of insulin and low c-peptide, which the prosecution showed was proof that insulin was given externally.
Forensic scientist Professor Matt Johll said the tests were fast and imperfect, while in a forensic setting, they would be more rigorous.
“The jury was not told there would be any risk about a false positive result,” he said, adding: “That kind of test was never meant to put someone in prison.”
“It’s not good enough for drug testing for pilots, so if it’s not good enough to fire someone, how can it be good enough to put someone in prison.”
He also doubted the prosecution's argument that she spiked a fluid bag and left it for another nurse to give to a baby, saying “we’re going into the point of absurdity here to make it connect.”
LBC
What questions remain?
There were eight months of prosecution evidence before Letby herself was cross-examined. The first person called by the defence to give evidence was the hospital’s plumber.
“It was surreal that the moment of knowing there would be no experts was so shocking and unexpected,” Mr Halliday said. It is not known why Letby’s team did not call forward more medical experts, despite having consulted with them.
No expert witnesses challenged the insulin test results."
The entire story can be read at:
10a6860a0001PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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