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Lucy Letby’s lawyer says new evidence warrants reconsideration of her convictions
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Lucy Letby’s lawyer says new evidence warrants reconsideration of her convictions

WARNING: Readers may find the details of this story distressing.

The lawyer for British nurse Lucy Letby, convicted of the killings, said he would ask for her convictions to be reviewed after the prosecution’s leading expert changed his opinion on how three babies died.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) defended the verdicts, saying two juries and three appeal court judges had already “considered a multitude of different pieces of evidence against Lucy Letby”.

Letby’s lawyer, Mark McDonald, said Dewi Evans’ testimony was no longer credible after overturning his opinion that Letby killed three infants by injecting air into a nasal gastric tube.

“The defense will argue that Dr. Evans is not a reliable expert, and given that he was the prosecution’s lead expert, we say that not all convictions are safe,” Mr. McDonald said .

A CPS spokesperson said in a statement that the Court of Appeal rejected Letby’s leave to appeal on all grounds in May – “rejecting his argument that the prosecution’s expert evidence was flawed” .

Letby, now 34, is serving multiple life sentences with no chance of release after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others while he worked as a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital in England between June 2015 and June 2016. .

Prosecutors said during the trial that the methods Letby used left little trace and included injecting air into their blood, poisoning them with insulin and interfering with breathing tubes.

The court heard she was a “constant malicious presence” and was alone on duty in the neonatal unit when the children collapsed or died.

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Letby, who testified at two trials that she had never harmed a child, has maintained her claims of innocence.

An unusual process

Experts said it was unusual to ask the Court of Appeal to reopen its previous decision to dismiss a case.

“It is extremely rare for a key expert witness in a criminal case to ‘change his or her mind’ on key pieces of evidence,” said defense attorney Sean Caulfield, who is not involved in the case .

“It is also rare for an attempt to reopen an appeal that has already been refused by the Court of Appeal to be made. I have never seen these two things happen in unison in my 20 year career.

“It’s a pretty astonishing turn of events.”

Mr McDonald said 15 medical experts from around the world were reviewing the trial evidence.

Lucy Letby appears via video link during appeal against conviction

Lucy Letby appeared via video link at the hearing. (Reuters: Julia Quenzler)

Separate investigation

An ongoing investigation into the hospital’s failure to recognize why the babies were dying and why it took so long to stop Letby was opened in September amid experts questioning the evidence used.

A group of scientists, doctors and legal experts who independently reviewed the scientific evidence from Letby’s trial have warned Britain’s health and justice ministers that legal systems are “particularly vulnerable to error” when they dealt with technical issues.

Dr Evans gave his new views on the deaths of the infants identified in court as Baby C, Baby I and Baby P in a signed response to a Channel 5 documentary, Letby’s lawyer Mark McDonald said.

“Make no mistake, I’m sure Dr Evans is still going to say that Lucy Letby is guilty and he has a different view or a different hypothesis on that,” Mr McDonald said.

“But the cause of death that was before the Court of Appeal is now different, according to Dr Evans, and I think that is a profound issue that needs to be revisited.”

Dr Evans has not yet responded to a request for comment following Mr McDonald’s press conference.

ABC/AP