The ‘outpouring’ of speculation about the safety of Lucy Letby’s convictions has caused ‘enormous additional distress’ to the families of her victims, the chair of a public inquiry set up to examine the baby murders has said.
Letby, 34, is serving 15 whole-life sentences after being found guilty of murdering seven newborns and trying to kill seven others while working on the neo-natal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital between the summers of 2015 and 2016.
She lost an appeal against her 14 convictions from the first trial earlier this year, but that has not stopped a growing number of experts, commentators and political figures raising questions and calling for them to be reviewed again.
The former nurse has now appointed a new legal team tasked with applying to the Criminal Cases Review Commission for the case to be sent back to the Court of Appeal.
Chaired by Lady Justice Thirlwall, the investigation at Liverpool Town Hall is to examine how Letby was able to attack babies and how its bosses handled concerns.
But it will not address the question of her guilt.
Opening the inquiry, Lady Justice Thirlwall said that appeal judgment was a ‘watershed’ as the parents of the nurse’s victim could now turn their minds to the inquiry.
She said: ‘At last the parents had finality, or so it seemed. But it was not to be. In the months that followed…there has been a huge outpouring of comment from a variety of quarters on the validity of the convictions.
‘As far as I am aware it has come entirely from people who were not at the trial. Parts of the evidence has been selected and there has been criticism of the defence at the trial.
‘All of this noise has caused enormous additional distress to the parents who have already suffered far too much.’
Lady Justice Thirlwall went on: ‘It is not for me to set about reviewing the convictions. The Court of Appeal has done that with a very clear result.’
She said the parents of those harmed had waited years for their questions to be answered and it was her responsibility to focus on the inquiry’s terms of reference.
‘It is time to get on with this inquiry,’ she said.
Rachel Langdale KC, counsel to the inquiry, said: ‘At the Countess of Chester between June 2015 and June 2016 the neonatal unit was a place where babies were murdered and injured by someone trusted to care for them, a nurse on the ward.’
She said the first part of the inquiry would include ‘heartbreaking’ evidence about the experiences of the parents whose babies were attacked by Letby.
‘The provision of written or oral evidence to you is a testament to the enormous courage of the parents,’ she said.
‘In the midst of their pain they have demonstrated a selfless commitment in the principle that others in the future should not suffer as they do.’
The barrister said medical and scientific evidence in each case should be considered in the context of all other evidence and should never be compartmentalised.
She added: ‘Those who do this will be less likely to see the picture as a whole. They may reach conclusions that are not only wrong but are speculative and damaging.’
Ms Langdale said the second part of the inquiry into Letby’s crimes would consider the conduct of those working at the Countess of Chester and how Letby was able repeatedly to kill and harm babies.
Despite mounting concerns raised to bosses by some consultants, she was not removed from the unit until after the deaths of two triplet boys and the suspected collapse of another baby boy on three successive days in June 2016 and police were not called in until the following year.
She said: ‘The inquiry’s unwavering process will not be examining the convictions but rather what the response of those at the time was and should have been to what they knew or should have known at the time.
‘Our inquiry will serve the vital purpose of keeping babies safe in the future for those rare cases when a healthcare professional intends them harm.’
She said witnesses would be expected to tell the truth ‘however difficult that may be’.
Thirdly, a focus on the wider NHS in examining relationships between the various groups of professionals, the culture within hospitals and how these affect the safety of newborns in neonatal units.
Ms Langdale said: ‘History tells us that serial killers are deceptive, manipulative and skilled at hiding in plain sight.’
She said an inquiry into Harold Shipman, a GP thought to have murdered hundreds of his patients, shed little light on why he carried out his crimes and found he was able to kill undetected over many years, enjoying a high reputation.
The barrister added: ‘For ordinary, decent right-thinking people the actions of Letby will remain unfathomable. We will not be inviting speculation from witnesses about her motive or mindset.’
She said the inquiry would examine why detailed medical analysis of the deaths and collapses of babies did not take place earlier and whether bias in favour of Letby influenced the hospital’s response.
She said: “It was not until April 2017, almost two years after the first murder, that the hospital made a referral to the police and detailed multi-disciplinary medical scrutiny and analysis was finally conducted.”
Earlier she said the babies who died or who were injured would be at the ‘heart of this inquiry’.
Lady Justice Thirlwall said that the inquiry bears her surname so that the parents do not repeatedly see the name of the person convicted of harming their babies.
She said it was planned that the hearings in Liverpool would finish in early 2025 and she expected her findings to be published by late autumn of that year.
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