Families of the victims of convicted child serial killer Lucy Letby have hit out at calls for the public inquiry into her crimes to be suspended.
They have also dismissed as “deception” Letby’s claims to have new evidence of her innocence.
Senior managers at the Countess of Chester Hospital, where nurse Letby killed seven babies and attempted to kill seven more, have added their voices to her call for Lady Justice Thirlwall’s inquiry to be paused.
In a submission to the inquiry, they wrote: “There now appears to be a real likelihood that there are alternative explanations for these deaths and unexplained collapses, namely poor clinical management and care and natural causes.”
Their barrister Kate Blackwell KC told the inquiry there is “a real possibility” Letby’s convictions may return to the Court of Appeal “and there be quashed”.
Continuing with the inquiry, she said, could potentially lead to unfairness.
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On Monday, Letby’s solicitors had written to the inquiry claiming that its final report – due to be published in the autumn – would “not only be redundant but likely unreliable” unless it was stopped pending the outcome of her battle to clear her name.
But in their own statement to the inquiry, a group of families of the babies attacked by Letby criticised the move by the senior managers.
“Their lack of insight into their own mistakes is both remarkable and shameful,” the group said.
They added: “Throughout the hearings, they consistently sought to defend their actions and to deflect blame on to others.
“And they are now attempting, opportunistically, to suspend the inquiry’s work pending Letby’s third attempt to appeal her convictions.”
They described that as “a bold and misguided move”.
“From the families’ perspective, the only fair and sensible course is for you to complete your work and submit your report based on the established facts,” they added.
Inquiry’s scope
The inquiry was set up to examine how Letby was able to attack babies and the wider culture within the NHS.
It is not examining any questions of Letby’s guilt or innocence. She is currently serving 15 whole life terms in prison.
Last month, an international panel of neonatologists and paediatric specialists, assembled by Letby’s defence team, said bad medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the collapses and deaths attributed to Letby on the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit in 2015 and 2016.
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Those findings will be passed to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, and Letby’s legal team hope her case will eventually be referred back to the Court of Appeal after two previous failed bids.
But at the inquiry, Peter Skelton KC, on behalf of one group of victims’ families, was damning of the defence team’s efforts.
“Cursory analysis of the report published by those experts identifies multiple problems with their analysis. What has been presented with great fanfare as new and incontrovertible evidence turns out to be old and full of analytical holes,” he said.
He added that the hypotheses had been advanced based on “fragile towers of speculation”.
Read more:
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‘It’s not new evidence’, says group of families of babies
In a submission to the inquiry, another group of families of babies, said: “The key deception in Letby’s approach in holding press conferences is that she can present evidence without that risk that it will be analysed, challenged or questioned.
“It permits her to control the narrative without having to explain why she chose not to call that evidence at trial.
“It is not new evidence but rather a re-hash of evidence that was available to her at her trial and which she could have called in her defence.”
Richard Baker KC, on behalf of those families, told the inquiry: “We cannot let the noise in the background stop the work that this inquiry can achieve.”
Cheshire Police say an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the hospital has now been widened to include gross negligence manslaughter with several individuals notified of the investigation.
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A separate police investigation into deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neonatal units of the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital during Letby’s time as a nurse between 2012 to 2016 is also ongoing.
