Friday, February 6, 2026

February 6: Neonatal Nurse Lucy Letby: UK: (Part Five): Prof. Gisli Gudjonsson; The Sun (Investigations Editor Rob Pattison) reports that 'The world’s top confession expert has quit the National Crime Agency to give evidence that Lucy Letby’s scrawled notes are NOT admissions of guilt, noting that: "He feels so strongly about the case – claimed by experts to be the greatest miscarriage of justice of the century – he has quit the National Crime Agency over conflicts of interest with the case so he could give evidence to try and clear Letby’s name. Prof. Gudjonsson said: “I had to resign to do justice to this case – it was in the interests of justice and fairness."


PASSAGE ONE  OF THE DAY: "After meeting her he was persuaded her notes did not amount to confessions. Prof Gudjonsson said: “It is an admission, not a confession. A confession requires explanation of why and how. That is not present here.”He add(s): So why does she write,  ‘I killed them on purpose’? Because she is not good enough, and therefore if she had been better, if she had realised she was not good enough, then it must have been her fault. “This is about self-blame. It is not about an intention to kill babies. I do not believe it has anything to do with that. “It has to do with her feeling she was not good enough, and that the babies died because she was not good enough as a nurse or in her job. “That is how I read the note. When I look at that so-called incriminating note, what I see is complete despair."

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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "“If you take one word or one sentence out of context, such as ‘I’m evil, I did this,’ it may appear incriminating.“But you have to look at the rest of the note, where she says, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong,’ ‘I hate myself,’ ‘I’m not good enough.’“That note, in my opinion, has no evidential value. It has personal meaning. It expresses distress. She even expresses uncertainty.“Taking sentences out of it and saying ‘this is all there is’ is misleading.”He adds: “So when she uses words like ‘murderer’ or ‘evil,’ these have personal meaning."“You cannot take ‘I’m a murderer’ as a factual confession. If she had written, ‘I murdered those babies, this is why I did it, and this is how I did it,’ that would be different. But there is nothing like that."

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PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: “There is no explanation of why or how. Therefore, this is not a confession. It is an admission of feeling evil, but not a confession. “A confession requires explanation. This does not have that. These are spontaneous thoughts from someone being psychologically tormented.” Prof. Gudjonsson’s incredible reputation has seen him give evidence for the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six and, last year, Oliver Campbell, who had his conviction for murder quashed by the Court of Appeal."

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STORY: | The world's top confession expert has quit the National Crime Agency to give evidence that Lucy Letby's scrawled notes are NOT admissions of guilt, by Investigations Editor Rob Pattinson, published by The Sun, on February 4, 2026. (Award-winning journalist and documentary producer. He is Investigations Editor at The Sun. In 2025 he revealed the Madeleine McCann files, culminating in a Sun documentary on suspect Christian Brueckner that aired on Channel 4’s Dispatches and attracted 3million viewers. He continues to investigate the case alongside other topics including society, scandal, politics, public figures, footballers, celebrities, lottery wins, Royals and cold case crimes. Rob was a double ‘Scoop of the Year’ winner in 2022 for the investigation that revealed Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s lockdown-breaching affair and was previously nominated for his work on exploding Vauxhalls in 2016.He broke the scandal of Captain Tom’s daughter pocketing donated cash to build a spa in the back garden of the home and unmasked the ‘last Nazi’. He revealed toddler Bronson Battersby being allowed to ‘starve’ to death in modern-day Britain and been written to by Austrian cellar monster Josef Fritzl. Rob notably exposed the notoriously secret Piers Gaveston parties at Oxford University for the first time. Rob worked extensively on The Sun’s coverage of the death of the Queen, revealing King Charles’ first words in person to his subjects and William’s touching admission the death reminded him of losing his mum. Rob has been at The Sun and Sun on Sunday since 2013 and covers the East, South and Midlands. He has also worked extensively in France and Germany. He is an accomplished videographer, scripter, presenter and editor. He studied Politics and holds a Masters in International Journalism. He is committed to protecting sources at all times.)

GIST: "The world’s top confession expert has quit the National Crime Agency to give evidence that Lucy Letby’s scrawled notes are NOT admissions of guilt.

The neonatal nurse’s scribbled notes, which were found in her home by police, included the phrases: “I am evil I did this” and “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them and I am a horrible evil person.

They were put before the jury as confessions by the prosecution and formed a cornerstone  of convicting Letby of seven murders, for which she is now serving 15 whole-life sentences.

But Professor Gisli Gudjonsson – THE world expert on the forensic psychology of confessions – has said the notes should not be seen as a confession.

He feels so strongly about the case – claimed by experts to be the greatest miscarriage of justice of the century – he has quit the National Crime Agency over conflicts of interest with the case so he could give evidence to try and clear Letby’s name.

Prof. Gudjonsson said: “I had to resign to do justice to this case – it was in the interests of justice and fairness.

“I had already seen Lucy, and later realised there was a potential conflict of interest because of my role at the NCA.

“I didn’t know they had been involved in the case so I had to decide whether to withdraw from the case or resign from a job I loved.

“I couldn’t just withdraw because there was a case in Northern Ireland where I declined to produce a report and it was misinterpreted as evidence of guilt.

“I became concerned that withdrawing from this case

“So I faced a choice: do I give up a job I love, or do I risk jeopardising the case? I could not risk jeopardising the case.

“I made a sacrifice in good faith and resigned. I do not regret it, although I am sad because I loved the job and my colleagues.”

Prof. Gudjonsson, 78, was working for the NCA as a ‘special,’ providing consultancy.

However, the agency had ties to the Letby case which means he would not have been able to give evidence on her behalf.

After meeting her he was persuaded her notes did not amount to confessions.

Prof Gudjonsson said: “It is an admission, not a confession. A confession requires explanation of why and how. That is not present here.”

He add(s): So why does she write,  ‘I killed them on purpose’? Because she is not good enough, and therefore if she had been better, if she had realised she was not good enough, then it must have been her fault.

“This is about self-blame. It is not about an intention to kill babies. I do not believe it has anything to do with that.

“It has to do with her feeling she was not good enough, and that the babies died because she was not good enough as a nurse or in her job.

“That is how I read the note. When I look at that so-called incriminating note, what I see is complete despair.

“If you take one word or one sentence out of context, such as ‘I’m evil, I did this,’ it may appear incriminating.

“But you have to look at the rest of the note, where she says, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong,’ ‘I hate myself,’ ‘I’m not good enough.’

“That note, in my opinion, has no evidential value. It has personal meaning. It expresses distress. She even expresses uncertainty.

“Taking sentences out of it and saying ‘this is all there is’ is misleading.”

He adds: “So when she uses words like ‘murderer’ or ‘evil,’ these have personal meaning.

“You cannot take ‘I’m a murderer’ as a factual confession. If she had written, ‘I murdered those babies, this is why I did it, and this is how I did it,’ that would be different. But there is nothing like that.

“There is no explanation of why or how. Therefore, this is not a confession. It is an admission of feeling evil, but not a confession.

“A confession requires explanation. This does not have that. These are spontaneous thoughts from someone being psychologically tormented.”

Prof. Gudjonsson’s incredible reputation has seen him give evidence for the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six and, last year, Oliver Campbell, who had his conviction for murder quashed by the Court of Appeal.

His view of the Letby confession notes could now be crucial to the case being referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).

He added: “Lucy told me that the notes she had written were private and had nothing to do with the babies.

“They had to do with her organising whether she had made mistakes in her work, whether she had not been entirely competent, and whether there was something she could have done to save the baby.

“It was about self-doubt. It was about whether she had made a mistake, whether she had not been good enough.”

The entire story can be read at.


PUBLISHER'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 AMFINAL 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 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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