LUCY Letby’s conviction is not safe because evidence presented in the trial was flawed, a former science adviser to Boris Johnson says.
James Phillips, who advised the former Prime Minister during the coronavirus pandemic, said the case raises questions on whether juries should be allowed to try complex scientific evidence.
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He told The Telegraph the case was similar to the handling of the Covid-19 crisis, with too much “group think” and experts not thinking statistically.
Mr Phillips spoke ahead of the public inquiry into the events surrounding the Lucy Letby case.
He said his view is that the presentation of data and expert evidence was “so flawed” that the conviction was rendered unsafe, though this is not to say Letby is definitely innocent.
Mrs Phillips added: “But I am effectively certain that this was not a fair trial based on the widespread problems in the way scientific evidence was presented at the trial and, just as, or even more importantly, what was not presented to the jury.
“This case is now about more than itself alone. It is about whether the judicial system is able to handle cases which hinge critically on scientific evidence, and whether there is a need for substantial reform in how a certain subcategory of trial is conducted.
“It was not, and is not, apparent to me that anyone in the chain of events leading from Letby being placed under suspicion by the consultants to the three-judge appeal being turned down had the skillset or perspective needed to detect potentially catastrophically weak links in this web of evidential relationships.”
In recent months a number of doctors, scientists and statisticians have publicly challenged how the evidence was presented to jurors.
A letter to Government ministers from 24 signatories including neonatal experts and professors of statistics called for a rethink over the terms of the public inquiry.
They also warned that important lessons could be missed from a “failure in understanding and examining alternative, potentially complex causes for the deaths”.
The investigation at Liverpool Town Hall begins today and is chaired by Lady Justice Thirlwall.
It is to examine how Letby was said to be able to attack babies on the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit in 2015 and 2016, and how its bosses handled concerns about her.
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Letby, 34, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one victim.
The inquiry will cover three broad areas.
Firstly, the experiences of the parents of the babies who featured on the criminal indictment that Letby faced.
Secondly, the conduct of those working at the Countess of Chester and how Letby was able repeatedly to kill and harm babies.
Letby was not removed from the unit until after the deaths of two triplet boys and the suspected collapse of another baby boy on three successive days in June 2016.
Police were not called in until the following year.
Thirdly, a focus on the wider NHS in examining relationships between the various groups of professionals, the culture within hospitals and how these affect the safety of newborns in neonatal units.
In Lady Justice Thirlwall’s opening statement in November, the senior Court of Appeal judge said she would also probe what recommendations had been made from previous inquiries into events in hospitals and other healthcare settings, and what difference they made.
She referred to the case of child killer nurse Beverley Allitt, who murdered four infants and caused grievous bodily harm or attempted to murder a total of nine other children in Lincolnshire in 1991.
She said: “Everyone was determined that it would not happen again. It has happened again. This is utterly unacceptable.”
Letby protested to the court “I’m innocent” as she was led from the dock when she was sentenced in July to her 15th whole-life order after a jury convicted her at retrial of the attempted murder of a baby girl.
In May, she lost her Court of Appeal bid to challenge her convictions from the first trial which took place between October 2022 and August 2023.
Her new lawyer, Mark McDonald, has claimed that new medical evidence and expert opinion had revealed “flaws” in the prosecution case and that he plans to apply to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to ask it to return the case to the Court of Appeal for consideration.
Solicitor Tamlin Bolton, who is representing the families of six victims, said speculation about Letby’s case in the media and possible future appeals had been “upsetting” for her clients.
The first week of the inquiry will hear opening statements from the counsel to the inquiry, along with legal representatives from “core participants” including the families of the victims.
Evidence is scheduled to begin the following week and will continue until at least December.
A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children involved in the case.
