Letby evidence 'unreliable

Lawyer looking to secure an appeal hearing for child killer

- ALEX ROSS

Child killer Lucy Letby's case could be the “biggest miscarriage of justice in the history of the United Kingdom", the lawyer behind a bid to overturn her convictions said.

The former nurse is serving 15 whole-life orders after being found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to end the lives of seven more between 2015 and 2016. Her attacks on babies at Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit made her one of the country's deadliest child serial killers.

A public inquiry began yesterday into how the former nurse was able to carry out her crimes, the conduct of staff at the hospital during 2015-16, and whether suspicions about Letby’s behaviour should have been raised earlier. Separately, Letby has appointed a new barrister, Mark McDonald, who has told The Independent he was working unpaid, night and day, to compile fresh medical evidence to secure an appeal hearing.

Last week he pulled together a team of 22 experts – including statisticians, forensic pathologists and aestheticians – to review the evidence put before the jury at Letby’s trial. “[They told me] that the science, the medical evidence that was presented to the jury by the prosecution was unreliable,” he told The Independent. He claimed to have the evidence of experts and whistleblowers to challenge Letby’s guilty verdict.