The Crown Prosecution Service has acknowledged that the evidence used to convict Lucy Letby in her trial was flawed. The 33-year-old nurse was handed a whole life sentence for what the judge described as a ‘cruel, calculated, and cynical campaign of murder’ on the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit. Letby is currently serving 14 entire life sentences, but a retrial at Manchester Crown Court last month found her guilty of another attempted murder, where door-swipe data used as evidence in the original trial was revealed to have been ‘mislabelled’.
Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC explained that the data showing which nurses and doctors were entering and exiting the intensive care ward was not accurate. The CPS later admitted that this evidence was flawed but assured that it had been ‘corrected’ for the retrial. A spokesperson for the Mersey-Cheshire Crown Prosecution Service stated, ‘The CPS can confirm that accurate door-swipe data was presented in the retrial.’
Members of Parliament have requested the CPS to clarify the timing errors that were made in the case. David Davis wrote to Sarah Hammond, the chief crown prosecutor of Mersey-Cheshire, asking for transparency regarding the errors. He emphasized the importance of accurate door-swipe data as it plays a crucial role in determining the whereabouts of nurses and doctors at specific times, which was pivotal to the prosecution’s case in the initial trial.
In Letby’s first trial, the prosecution alleged that consultant Dr. Ravi Jayaram ‘discovered Letby standing over Baby K at 3.50am on 17 February 2016’. The baby was deteriorating, and its breathing tube had been dislodged. However, door swipe data presented in the trial indicated that the baby’s nurse had left the intensive care unit at 3.47am, when in reality, she had returned at that time, indicating that Letby was not alone. Both the prosecution and defense acknowledged this mistake in the retrial, leading to Letby being convicted of the attempted murder of Baby K.
The Department of Health has announced that an independent inquiry will be conducted into Letby’s case, focusing on ‘the circumstances surrounding the deaths and incidents – including how concerns raised by clinicians were dealt with.’
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