The public investigation into the crimes of Lucy Letby will not be stopped, his chairman ruled, despite requests from hospital managers to do so.
Lady Justice Thirlwall on Wednesday refused the application of senior hospital managers to interrupt the investigation, pending the outcome of Letby’s latest challenge to her multiple convictions for murder and attempted murder.
Since September, the Thirlwall investigation has been investigating how the former Neonatal nurse could kill or attack 14 babies in Chester Hospital.
Lady Justice Thirlwall in the Liverpool City Hall in September, before hearings on the murders and attempted murders of babies by Letby. Photo: Dad
Evidence was completed last month and the final report will be published in November.
In the closure of submissions Tuesday, Kate Blackwell QC, who represented former CEO Tony Chambers, former medical director Ian Harvey, former director of nursing Alison Kelly and former HR director Sue Hodkinson, said there was a ‘real possibility’ LetbyThe convictions could be overturned, and to continue the report, the work would be unfair to her clients.
Former senior executives also requested a parallel request to the health secretary, West Streeting, to suspend the investigation on similar grounds.
Richard Baker KC, who represents the families of the victims of Letby, said the applications to stop the investigation were motivated by a desire of the UK’s most productive children’s series to “try to control the narrative” and for the managers “to avoid criticism”.
Letby’s latest legal challenge to her multiple convictions is based on recent medical evidence presented by an international panel of neonatologists and pediatric specialists, who work Pro Bono for Letby’s defensive team, which found that bad medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the collapses and deaths.
Liverpool Town Hall, where the Thirlwall investigation heard evidence. Photo: Dad
These findings will be passed on to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, and Letby’s legal team hopes that her case will eventually be referred to the Court of Appeal after two failed bids.
Lady Justice Thirlwall, who sits in Liverpool City Hall, said: ‘I’m not satisfied that there is an unfairness in the current situation. I am satisfied that the process was fair.
“As I said before, it’s not the actions of Lucy Letby I investigate; This is the actions of everyone who was in the hospital … and what they did at the time, in light of what they knew at the time and in the light of what they should have known at the time. “
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She continued: ‘There are already a large number of concessions about what was not done and what should have been done. These important concessions come from the organizations and the hospital, including the doctors and the managers.
“Perhaps the principle, and the most obvious, is under the concessions made by everyone, the recognition that there was a total failure of protection at every level, and that it will not change.
“This is a matter that has been debated at some point in the course of the investigation, and it seems to me in any report.”
Letby, 35, of Hereford, serves 15 orders of all life after she was convicted of the Manchester Crown Court of the murder of seven babies over two hearings and tried to kill seven others, with two attempts at one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.
Letby’s lawyer Mark McDonald said that today’s decision is “a great disgrace”.
‘Despite the millions of pounds spent, any report and recommendations will one day be regarded as unreliable and redundant.
“I will continue to represent Ms Letter without fear or favor and ensure that the many defects in the case are placed before the Court of Appeal. If the many experts who have emerged are right, a young innocent woman is in prison for crimes she has not committed.”
