LONDON (AP) — An expert panel has challenged the medical evidence that led to the conviction of British nurse Lucy Letby for the alleged murder of seven newborns and attempted murder of seven others, announced Dr. Shoo Lee, a retired neonatologist from Canada, who spearheaded the review on Tuesday. Dr. Lee revealed that a group of 14 doctors determined that the infants either succumbed to natural causes or suffered due to substandard medical care.
“In conclusion, we did not observe any evidence of deliberate harm,” Dr. Lee stated during a press briefing in London.
Letby, 35, is currently serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole following her conviction for murder and attempted murder during her tenure as a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwestern England between June 2015 and June 2016. Defense attorney Mark McDonald contended that there is now “compelling evidence” supporting Letby’s innocence.
This marks the second press conference convened in part by McDonald to challenge the findings of Dr. Dewi Evans, the prosecution’s key expert witness. According to prosecutors, Letby allegedly caused the deaths of infants with minimal evidence, sometimes by injecting air into their bloodstreams or stomachs, resulting in embolisms.
However, Dr. Lee clarified that Evans had misconstrued his 1989 academic study on embolisms. Lee stated that he had gathered a distinguished panel of international medical experts who voluntarily reviewed the medical records of the 17 infants Letby was accused of harming or killing.
Dr. Evans purportedly diagnosed the infants with air embolisms without identifying an alternative cause of death, as per Dr. Lee. Nonetheless, Lee highlighted that embolisms are extremely rare and the skin discoloration reported during the trial did not align with typical embolism symptoms.
“The assertion that these infants were diagnosed with air embolisms based on their collapse and skin discolorations lacks factual support,” Dr. Lee remarked.
Letby’s previous attempts to launch an appeal have been unsuccessful. Her legal team submitted a request on Monday for the Criminal Case Review Commission to review her conviction, potentially opening the door for a fresh appeal.
A separate public inquiry investigating the hospital’s systemic failures that led to repeated harm of infants is scheduled to conclude next month. Although this inquiry does not scrutinize the evidence used in Letby’s conviction, its primary focus is on holding hospital staff and management accountable and examining the treatment of parents throughout the ordeal.
