Conservative former minister Sir David Davis has called for a retrial of child serial killer Lucy Letby. The former nurse is the most prolific baby killer in modern history after being convicted of murdering seven babies and trying to kill seven more while working as a nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Former cabinet minister Sir David Davis has spent time probing the case of the former nurse and believes a retrial would ‘come to a different conclusion’.
Letby, from Hereford, is currently serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.
Lawyers for Letby last month said they would make a fresh bid to challenge her convictions on the grounds that the lead prosecution medical expert at her trial was ‘not reliable’.
Her barrister, Mark McDonald, said he would immediately seek permission from the Court of Appeal to take the ‘exceptional but necessary decision’ to apply to reopen her case.
Mark McDonald barrister representing Lucy Letby
(Image: PA)
During an adjournment debate in the Commons on Wednesday (January 8), Mr Davis told MPs: “There is case in justice, in my view, for a retrial. But there is a problem: one of the problems we face is that much of the evidence was available at the time.
“What I have described is an expert analysis of the case notes, which were there at the time, but it was simply not presented to the jury. This means the Court of Appeal can dismiss it, basically saying the defence should have presented it at the initial trial.
“It is in essence saying, ‘if your defence team weren’t good enough to present this evidence, hard luck, you stay banged-up for life’. Now that may be judicially convenient, but it’s not justice.”
Sir David said earlier in the debate: “There was no hard evidence against Letby, nobody saw her do anything untoward. The doctor’s gut feeling was based on a coincidence she was on shift for a number of deaths, and this is important, although far from all of them, far from all of them.
Court artist drawing of Lucy Letby giving evidence during her trial at Manchester Crown Court
(Image: PA)
“It was built on a poor understanding of probabilities, which could translate later into an influential but spectacularly flawed piece of evidence.”
Letby was convicted of attacking infants in her care at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit by various means, including injecting air via feeding tubes, injecting air into the bloodstream, assault, force feeding with milk and poisoning with insulin.
She lost two bids last year to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal – in May for seven murders and seven attempted murders, and in October for the attempted murder of a baby girl which she was convicted of by a different jury at a retrial.
The Thirlwall Inquiry is examining events at the Countess of Chester Hospital and their implications following the trial, and subsequent convictions, of Letby.