Why do so many doctors think convicted murderer Lucy Letby is a victim of a miscarriage of justice?

The former nurse at the Countess of Chester hospital in the north of England is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of seven babies in her care and the attempted murder of seven more. 

Following her convictions at two trials in 2023 and 2024, Judge Mr Justice Goss sentenced her to a rare whole life tariff - meaning she can never apply for parole and will die in prison. 

“There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions,” he told her. 

“During the course of this trial you have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing and sought to attribute some fault to others. You have shown no remorse. 

“There are no mitigating factors.”

Lucy Letby would have been in court today if the Tories had acted when Labour demanded change last April.

On behalf of victims and their families, the government must stop talking and get on with it. pic.twitter.com/9wmDXUNlB6

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) August 21, 2023

However, there is now a growing number of experts who question whether Letby actually committed the crimes she was convicted of. 

No one ever saw the nurse kill anyone and now a panel of doctors has called into question the medical evidence used to convict her at her two trials. 

“Fourteen medical experts from all around the world, who are not being paid and have no vested interest in the case, they’ve all gone away, they’ve studied the medical evidence that was used to convict her,” journalist Enda Brady explained to Newstalk Breakfast. 

“They’ve come forward now together with a paper which they say shows there is no evidence that she killed those babies or attempted to murder the other seven. 

“They’ve put those findings forwards and given them to her legal defence and that legal defence team will now take that ‘new evidence’ and hand it over to the Criminals Cases Review Commission.” 

Lucy Letby. Picture by: Cheshire Constabulary via AP.

Letby is now being represented by Mark McDonald, a King’s Counsel who specialises in miscarriages of justice. 

Speaking on GB News last night, Mr McDonald said the doctors have “demolished” the case against his client and called it a “gamechanger”. 

However, Mr Brady has his doubts whether the report contains enough new evidence to compel the Criminal Cases Review Commission to recommend a retrial. 

“Fresh evidence normally constitutes new DNA development, it might constitute some CCTV that previously was missed or a member of the public hadn’t it over,” he said. 

“It might constitute an alibi or it might constitute a key prosecution witness completely changing their story or being discredited. 

“None of which has happened in this case.” 

Court artist drawing by Elizabeth Cook of the parent of one of Lucy Letby's victims reading a victim impact statement at Manchester Crown Court. Picture by: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Letby has already lodged an application with the Criminal Cases Review Commission and Mr Brady predicted it will be “her last roll of the dice”. 

“There are many, many people jumping on this; there’s a lot of conspiracy theories online,” he said. 

“But it’s very interesting, there’s also a public inquiry running at the moment in the UK into all of the failings at the hospital that allowed her to kill those babies. 

“The chair of that inquiry has said that all of this conspiracy and rejection of the prosecution is extremely distressing for the families of those little babies.” 

Since the creation of the CCRC in 1997, it has sent over 800 cases back to the courts for the verdict to be reviewed.

Main image: Lucy Letby.