A panel of neonatal experts is set to review new medical evidence in Lucy Letby's case, potentially leading to a retrial of the convicted baby killer. Letby's legal team claims the original trial was prejudiced and that crucial evidence was misinterpreted.
A panel of 14 neonatal experts is set to submit new medical evidence in support of Lucy Letby 's case, according to her legal team. Letby, from Hereford, is currently serving 15 whole-life orders after being found guilty of murdering seven babies and the attempted murders of seven others, with two attempts on one child. Last year, her legal team requested, and lost, an appeal against a conviction for the attempted murder of a newborn known as Child K after a retrial for Child K had taken place.
Despite her lawyers arguing that the media coverage surrounding her convictions – which they said featured “intense hostility towards her” – prejudiced her case, the objective is to convince the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to apply for her case to be heard once again by the Court of Appeal. This development looks at the possible scenarios that could play out next for one of Britain’s most high-profile killers.The expert panel, chaired by Conservative MP Sir David Davis, will include retired neonatologist Dr Shoo Lee, who claims his research – an academic paper he co-authored more than 30 years earlier – was misused to convict the nurse. Letby's legal team also claims the jury was misled over key evidence that Letby was the common link between all the suspicious incidents at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016. Her barrister Mark McDonald may announce fresh medical evidence, challenging the court’s original ruling, or the expert panel may produce a thorough report on why the evidence relied on in previous cases should not be relied upon – but this may not be enough.Dr Lee’s 1989 academic paper on air embolisms was used by former paediatrician and chief prosecution witness Dr Dewi Evans while he was giving evidence during Letby’s original trials to show the nurse had killed babies by injecting them with air. The retired neonatologist has since come out, however, and thrown doubt over the prosecutor’s interpretation of his paper, stating: “I wasn’t very happy because what they were interpreting wasn’t exactly what I said.” However, during the original trial, Letby’s defence team never called on Dr Lee to dispute the prosecutor’s claims. Evans has repeatedly maintained that concerns over his evidence were “unsubstantiated, unfounded, inaccurate”. Dr Dewi Evans, a consultant paediatrician arriving at Manchester Crown Court to give evidence at the Lucy Letby trial (Photo: Peter Byrne/PA) The Court of Appeal has also refused to allow Dr Lee to clarify how his evidence should have been interpreted in the past. It is possible that, while the new neonatal panel produces what it considers as fresh evidence, neither the Court of Appeal nor the CCRC will consider the evidence new or significant enough to warrant the reopening of Letby’s case.In December, Mr McDonald called a press conference to announce “new evidence” which he claimed significantly undermined Letby’s convictions for murdering babies. The barrister had said he would use the “new evidence” to press the CCRC and Court of Appeal to reopen Letby’s case. The three most significant pieces of new evidence at the time involved Dr Evans now having “changed his mind” about the documents he relied on during Letby’s original trial; leading experts having argued a different cause of death for the seven babies killed by Letby; and penicillin test results – which juries were originally told had shown the convicted murderer gave two babies an insulin overdose – were “unreliable”. Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC cross examining Lucy Letby during her trial at Manchester Crown Court (Sketch: Elizabeth Cook/PA) However, Dr Evans has given numerous media interviews insisting he had not changed his mind and that the convictions are safe. Of Mr McDonald, Dr Evans has said: “His method of presenting his information reflects clear prejudice and bias. I find his style most unedifying, most unprofessional. Following Letby’s lawyer’s press conference in December, the Court of Appeal did not reopen the case. Further dissenting expert opinions by Davis’s panel, voicing concerns over Dr Evans or evidence used in the original trials, such as penicillin test results, may once again fall short of what can be considered fresh evidence and of what would be needed for Mr McDonald to get his desired outcome.The CCRC, the body available to those who believe they have been wrongly convicted and have already lost their appeal, say they will only send a case back to the Court of Appeal if there is “strong new evidence or an argument that makes the case look different now”. If the CCRC feels evidence presented to them by Davis’s expert panel and Letby’s legal team is likely to trigger the Court of Appeal to quash Letby’s convictions or reduce her sentence then Mr McDonald could score a significant legal victory
Lucy Letby Neonatal Experts New Evidence Criminal Cases Review Commission Court Of Appeal Retrial Medical Evidence Doubtful Convictions
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