Latest news with #CountessOfChester
Telegraph
02-07-2025
- Telegraph
Police failed to tell Letby she could be facing further charges
Police failed to tell Lucy Letby that she could be facing further charges, forcing her to find out through 'gossipy' leaks to the press, her barrister has complained. Mark McDonald, defending Letby, said it was concerning that police did not 'have the courtesy' to inform her legal team that it was passing a new file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The file is thought to relate to new baby deaths and non-fatal collapses at the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women's Hospital between 2012 and 2016. Mr McDonald argued that evidence of Letby's innocence was now 'overwhelming' and said he was concerned that police were using journalists 'as a conduit for leaked gossip'. He said: 'One could be cynical and say that the police are afraid of what will happen when Lucy's conviction is overturned. 'We will cross every bridge when we get to it, but if Lucy is charged I know we have a whole army of internationally renowned medical experts who will totally undermine the prosecution's unfounded allegations.' 'Carefully consider the evidence' Letby, 35, from Herefordshire, was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven others while working at the Countess of Chester in 2015 and 2016. But since the trial, scores of scientists, medics and politicians have come forward to question how the trial was conducted, while a panel of eminent experts has reviewed the cases and concluded that there were no murders. Jeremy Hunt, who was health secretary during the period when Letby worked at the Countess of Chester, has said there are 'serious and credible' concerns regarding the conviction. The case is currently under consideration by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which looks into potential miscarriages of justice. The CCRC is expected to report back by Christmas. Following her convictions, Cheshire Constabulary announced that it would be investigating more attacks at the Countess of Chester and elsewhere, and officers have interviewed Letby in prison on several occasions. A spokesman for the force said: 'We can confirm that Cheshire Constabulary has submitted a full file of evidence to the CPS for charging advice regarding the ongoing investigation into deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neonatal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women's Hospital as part of Operation Hummingbird.' The CPS confirmed that it had received the file and said it would 'carefully consider the evidence to determine whether any criminal charges should be brought'. A spokesman said: 'As always, we will make that decision independently, based on the evidence and in line with our legal test.'
Telegraph
01-07-2025
- Telegraph
Why these arrests are bad news for Lucy Letby
The twists and turns of the Lucy Letby case have taken a new, troubling direction. On Tuesday, Cheshire Constabulary announced that it had arrested three members of the senior leadership team at the Countess of Chester hospital, where the babies that Letby was convicted of murdering were in her care. The allegation is gross negligence manslaughter – the implication being that managers were criminally negligent in not preventing Letby from carrying out her deadly campaign on their wards. The problem with this investigation is that there is now serious doubt that any murders took place at all. Scores of experts have voiced concerns, and the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has enlisted a huge team to examine the case. It is expected to report back before Christmas. For the police to not only refuse to acknowledge the serious doubts that have arisen since Letby's conviction, but to also double down by arresting the management feels not only tactical, but a little vindictive. After all, if the CCRC determines that the conviction is unsafe and Letby is eventually acquitted – a very real possibility – then the decision of management to question the suspicions of finger-pointing consultants will be entirely vindicated. It is also hard to see how the management team could have acted differently when consultants came to them claiming that a killer nurse was on the prowl. Evidence to the Thirlwall Inquiry, which is looking into how the attacks could have been prevented, revealed that doctors provided no proof that Letby was guilty, simply having a 'gut feeling' because she was present when some of the babies collapsed. Despite this flimsy reasoning, the management took Letby off the wards and carried out several internal and external reviews attempting to get to the bottom of the high death rate. Even when hospital bosses did agree to contact police in May 2017, the Assistant Chief Constable of Cheshire Constabulary told them he did not think the threshold for a criminal investigation had been met. It was not until Ravi Jayaram, a consultant, later claimed that he had caught Letby failing to help a collapsing baby that police launched a full inquiry. That allegation had not been made to managers earlier, and is not backed up by previous emails sent by Dr Jayaram. But the timing of the new arrests feels significant. It comes just a fortnight after Jeremy Hunt, a former health secretary, called for an 'urgent re-examination' of the Letby case, saying that 'serious and credible' questions had been raised by experts. Last week, Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, also announced a rapid national investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal health services following a string of scandals. Just as the narrative is tipping in Letby's favour, Cheshire Constabulary has issued an investigation update, and it is not the first time the force has done so. In March, lawyers representing former executives at the Countess of Chester asked for the Thirlwall Inquiry to be paused while criminal cases against the nurse were reviewed. But on the eve of legal arguments about the submission, Cheshire Constabulary announced it was expanding the scope of its inquiry to include gross negligence manslaughter against 'individuals at the hospital.' Now those same individuals have been arrested and bailed. Arresting someone does not mean that charges will be brought, only that they can now be interviewed under caution. But the managers could have been invited for a voluntary interview under caution, meaning this announcement by the police feels performative and unnecessary. The arrests also play into the hands of those who will not even consider that Letby could be innocent, and will not go unnoticed by the CCRC. And it raises the prospect that if charges are brought, reporting restrictions will be re-imposed, making it harder to publicly query the Letby convictions. In Tuesday's update, Cheshire Constabulary also pointed out that it was continuing to investigate Letby for more offences at the Countess of Chester and Liverpool Women's Hospital, where she worked as a trainee. It is unclear how new charges would affect the CCRC review, but they would undoubtedly cause a new, unwanted headache for her defence team. Senior management find themselves in the line of fire whatever a new Letby verdict. If she remains guilty, they ignored the doctors and allowed a serial killer to roam the wards unchecked. If she is innocent, they missed one of Britain's worst maternity scandals and failed to tackle doctors attempting to lay the blame for their failings on an innocent nurse. Earlier this month, Nottinghamshire Police launched a corporate manslaughter investigation into failings at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust that led to hundreds of babies dying or being injured. The Letby investigation has cost millions, and if her convictions are overturned, serious questions will need to be asked about why Cheshire continued to pursue the case at taxpayers' expense when there were clear issues.
Irish Times
01-07-2025
- Irish Times
Lucy Letby case roils Britain's legal and medical establishments
A slight mishap while on a trip to the northwest of England during a political campaign some time back required that I attend hospital for a routine test. It was nothing in the end, a brief interlude to my day and of no consequence at all. But as I arrived at the hospital entrance, I craned to read the big sign as we drove past: the Countess of Chester hospital. Its notoriety immediately registered. 'This is the Lucy Letby hospital,' I thought, recalling the 2023 conviction of a neonatal nurse from the hospital. She was found guilty of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six more between June 2015 and June 2016. She was later convicted of a seventh attempted murder in a second trial. The Letby verdict was billed at the time as her country's worst ever case of the mass killing of children, a horror show that roiled the British nation. How could this seemingly unremarkable woman carry out such a campaign of death under the noses of hospital bosses? Why would anybody do such things? READ MORE Two years on, the story around Letby is morphing into a horror show of a potentially different variety for Britain's medical and legal establishments. The 35-year-old languishes in prison serving a whole-life order. As it stands, she will never be released. Yet after four court cases – two trials and two failed appeals – almost two years into a public inquiry and deep into a fresh police investigation of events at the hospital, the sense is that Britain is even less certain now of what happened than it was before. Letby's case is now being examined by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Political pressure is growing on it to speed up its examination and, if it finds it warranted, to refer the case back to the courts as a potential miscarriage of justice There were murmurings about Letby's conviction soon after the verdicts. There was no direct physical evidence linking her to any incident. Nobody had seen her harm a baby. One doctor had given evidence that he walked in on Letby as she stood by while a baby, its breathing tube apparently dislodged, was in distress. Almost all the prosecution case against Letby hinged on a statistical argument that it could only have been her who could have perpetrated the incidents. She was the common denominator, always on shift when things went wrong, always in some way involved. There was also a note of Letby's, written after she fell under suspicion, where she scrawled 'I killed them ... I did this'. Another doctor gave expert medical evidence that, it was argued, showed the babies had been attacked. Sometimes it was by having air injected in their bloodstream, others apparently poisoned with insulin. The sense that a rethink might be needed gathered pace at the beginning of this year when David Davis MP, a respected former Tory minister, stood up in the House of Commons and said there was 'no hard evidence' that Letby did anything wrong. Davis is known for campaigning on alleged miscarriage of justice cases. Letby had changed legal team. They contacted Davis, who said he had seen a dossier of medical evidence that suggested Letby's conviction was potentially unsafe. Soon, we all saw it. In February, I was among a group of journalists who gathered in a grand, oak-panelled room near the Palace of Westminster to hear from representatives of a global independent panel of 14 medical experts assembled for Letby's legal team. The chair of that panel of experts, retired Canadian neonatal expert Shoo Lee, said the panel 'did not find any murder'. Instead, he argued, all of the cases could be explained by hospital neglect or natural causes. Davis later revealed he had seen leaked emails that contradicted the evidence of the doctor who apparently had walked in on Letby, the only testimony from a medical professional that directly linked her to any alleged incident. In the emails Davis saw, a paediatrician wrote that Letby had called the doctor into the room that day. Davis said the doctor who had given evidence should be investigated by police. Letby's case is now being examined by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). Political pressure is growing on it to speed up its examination and, if it finds it warranted, to refer the case back to the courts as a potential miscarriage of justice. On Tuesday, it emerged Cheshire police had arrested three managers who worked at the hospital between 2015 and 2016, as part of an investigation into possible gross negligence manslaughter. Police said it did not 'impact on the convictions of Letby'. That is a truism. Only a court decision can have an impact on her conviction. All the while, a public inquiry chaired by appeal court judge Kathryn Thirlwall trundles along. It was established with its starting point the assumption that Letby is a remorseless mass murderer. Yet in the background swirls a growing campaign that maintains her conviction is unsafe. The inquiry's report has been delayed until next year. Where might Letby be by then? That might depend on the CCRC and the courts. In the meantime, the distraught parents of 13 babies (Letby was convicted of trying to kill one of them twice) will be in a hell of somebody else's making, their grip possibly loosened on answers they had believed were settled.
Daily Mail
01-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Lucy Letby arrests: Three former managers at hospital where nurse murdered babies are arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter
THREE former bosses at the hospital where Lucy Letby murdered babies have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, Cheshire Police announced today. The senior executives, who worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital during the neo-natal nurse's killing spree, were quizzed by detectives yesterday after being invited to attend separate police stations across Cheshire. They have since been bailed. Their arrests form part of Cheshire Constabulary's ongoing inquiry into corporate manslaughter at the NHS Trust, where Letby murdered seven premature infants and harmed seven more between June 2015 and June 2016. In March, Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, confirmed the corporate manslaughter investigation, codenamed Operation Duet, had been widened to include 'the grossly negligent action or inaction of individuals.' He said 'those identified as suspects had been notified' but refused to confirm any names. The Mail is aware of the identities of those arrested but is not naming individuals. Letby, 35, is serving 15 whole-life orders after being found guilty of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. She has twice had applications to challenge her convictions rejected by the Court of Appeal. According to an independent report, leaked to the Mail's Trial+ podcast, in March, babies' lives could have been saved if hospital bosses had acted sooner to remove Lucy Letby from working. The report, commissioned by the Countess after Letby was first arrested, in July 2018, found managers were 'inexperienced' and missed 14 opportunities to suspend the nurse because they became 'blinkered' to the possibility she was responsible. Instead of alerting the police, they commissioned a series of ineffectual external investigations, which failed to get to the bottom of why babies were unexpectedly collapsing and dying, the document said. Executives also 'ostracised' and 'bullied' doctors when they continued to raise concerns and demand police be called in, the report, carried out by independent healthcare consultancy Facere Melius, which has been blocked from publication, concluded. Although the report does not specifically reveal which babies might have lived, it makes clear that, by February 2016, at least two senior executives at the hospital knew about the link between Letby and the infant deaths. She tried to kill four children, Babies K, L, M and N, and murdered two triplet brothers, Babies O and P, before being removed from frontline nursing in July that year. 'Earlier action potentially would have reduced the number of baby deaths,' the report said. 'Had different decisions been made the spike in baby deaths would have been picked up sooner internally and externally, and potentially, lives could have been saved.' At the recent public inquiry, which is investigating Letby's crimes, senior management at the hospital faced serious criticism over their handling of the spike in deaths. In their closing speeches, in March, lawyers for the infants' families, accused executives of orchestrating a cover up to protect the reputation of the hospital, lying to the families and bullying the consultants who tried to raise the alarm. Peter Skelton KC, who represents seven of Letby's victims, said they displayed 'a form of individual and corporate self-protection that should have no place in the NHS.' Kate Blackwell KC, for the senior executives, said in her closing remarks that they now accepted they should have called in police sooner, but the barrister insisted it was never expressed to them in 'stark' terms that Letby was causing deliberate harm before June 2016 – when she attacked and murdered Babies O and P and was finally moved from frontline nursing into an administrative role. Ms Blackwell said managers accepted they had failed to follow safeguarding policies, made mistakes in their communication with the babies' parents and that there was a breakdown in their relationship with the paediatricians, who should have been better supported. But she insisted all their decisions were taken 'in good faith' and they 'vociferously denied' claims they deliberately and knowingly 'harboured' a murderer or put the hospital's reputation before the safety of babies in their care. 'The senior managers have emphatically refuted the proposition that either their own reputation or that of the Trust was prioritised over safety,' she added. In law, an individual can be found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter if they negligently breach the duty of care they owe the person who died and it was 'reasonably foreseeable' that such a breach gave rise to a 'serious and obvious risk of death.' The circumstances of the breach also have to be 'truly exceptionally bad and so reprehensible' that it amounts to gross negligence. Mr Hughes, senior investigating Officer for Operation Duet, said: 'As part of our ongoing enquiries, on Monday 30th June three individuals who were part of the senior leadership team at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015-2016, were arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. 'All three have subsequently been bailed pending further enquiries. 'Both the corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter elements of the investigation are continuing and there are no set timescales for these. 'Our investigation into the deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neo-natal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women's Hospital between the period of 2012 to 2016 is also ongoing.' Letby, of Hereford, has always maintained she is innocent and in April her new defence team submitted evidence from a panel of international experts to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the organisation that examines miscarriages of justice, in a bid to have her convictions overturned. The experts claim no murders took place and instead assert that the babies died or collapsed because of natural causes or poor care.
Daily Mail
15-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Lucy Letby supporter claims neo-natal unit where baby serial killer worked was 'not fit for purpose'
The Countess of Chester Hospital's neo-natal unit was 'not fit for purpose' before Lucy Letby started murdering babies, a former nurse who worked there has claimed. Michele Worden said redundancies led to a loss of senior staff and plumbing issues created a 'perfect storm' for care failings. The former advanced nurse practitioner left the Countess after being made redundant in 2007, four years before Letby started working and eight years before her killing spree began. She told the Nursing Times that when the unit was downgraded in around 2006 and stopped caring for very premature babies under 27 weeks, senior nurses were replaced with junior staff who were asked to care for infants 'above their capabilities [and] training.' She said: 'It wasn't just the neonatal unit that wasn't fit for purpose, the whole maternity and paediatric and gynaecology… was not fit for purpose. 'The problems with the sewage and blocked sinks were not just [on] the neonatal unit, it was on the labour ward, it was all over.' Ms Worden said she believed the situation at the Countess of Chester was 'no different' to other NHS hospitals where maternity scandals have been uncovered in recent years. 'Hopefully Lucy will be exonerated,' she said. 'Chester is no different than Shrewsbury, Nottingham, Morecambe Bay. Women and children's healthcare has never been a high priority.' Letby, 38, is serving 15 whole life terms after being convicted of the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of seven more, including one baby girl she tried to kill twice. Plumber Lorenzo Mansutti, estates manager at the Countess, was the only witness called by Letby in her defence at her Manchester Crown Court trial. He admitted drainage problems were a 'weekly' issue at the hospital's 50-year-old Women's and Children's Building and told the jury that he remembered an incident when raw sewage backed up into sinks in the intensive care nursery. But he said it was a 'one off' and insisted that at no point were staff unable to wash their hands because the hospital had 'backup' portable handwashing units on site. The problem was not logged as a formal incident, so no exact date for the incident could be found. Letby's trial heard that none of the seven babies who died collapsed due to a bacterial infection associated with poor sewage. Cheshire police are continuing to investigate the former nurse and last year confirmed they had questioned her in prison in connection with more baby deaths. But, following a presentation from 14 international experts in February, who claim none of the babies were murdered but died due to poor care, there has been a continued chorus of people questioning the safety of her convictions. Letby has twice applied and been refused leave to appeal, but her new legal team have submitted a file of evidence to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice, in a last ditch attempt to get her convictions overturned. They claim the testimony of lead prosecution expert Dewi Evans was biased and that he changed his mind over the method of murder of one of the children murdered by Letby, a boy known as Baby C. Dr Evans has denied this and the Court of Appeal has already dismissed claims he was not suitably qualified or lacked independence. Yesterday it emerged that Dr Evans, who has been subjected to intense trolling online from Letby supporters, had been involved in an online row with one of them - an anonymous statistician who Dr Evans accused of being motivated by a sexual attraction to Letby. According to the statistician, Dr Evans wrote: 'You seem very intense, and it's not unusual for men to have the hots for pretty young blonde females. A nursing uniform is a turn-on for some by all accounts. 'I would suggest you need to get out more, find yourself an available pretty young blonde female, with/without nursing credentials. But one who doesn't go to work intent on murdering her patients.' The statistician said it was 'absurd' to say he believed Letby was innocent because she was 'blonde and pretty' and insisted he had come to that view after reviewing the transcripts of the trial.
