Your support helps us to tell the story
TV star and barrister Robert Rinder has joined the chorus of people expressing concerns about the trial of convicted child killer Lucy Letby.
The NHS neonatal nurse is currently serving 15 whole-life sentences for seven murders and seven attempted murders of babies while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Despite her numerous convictions following a year-long trial at Manchester Crown Court in 2023, a growing number of public figures have begun to raise questions over aspects of the evidence used to convict the 34-year-old.
The Guardian reported this week that notes by Letby, in which she appeared to confess to the crimes, were penned after she was told by her GP and her hospital’s head of occupational health and wellbeing to write down her feelings.
Novara Media’s Ash Sarker wrote on X: “I’m not going to sit here and pretend to be an expert in complex criminal cases. But I think that if it had been me sitting on the jury, I’d consider this the very definition of reasonable doubt.”
Judge Rinder responded: “I am an expert in complex criminal cases and - from the information now in the public domain - there appears to be a great deal to be concerned about in this case.”
Earlier this week, former cabinet minister Sir David Davis said he believes it is “highly probable” serial killer nurse Lucy Letby is innocent.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Monday (2 September), the former Brexit secretary said he believes there is “more than reasonable doubt” over Letby’s conviction.
Sir David told presenters Susanna Reid and Ed Balls that several senior doctors have been in touch with him and sent alternative diagnoses for each of the deaths for which Letby was found guilty.
He said other deaths that had occurred in the unit when Letby was not on shift were not called into question.
Letby’s original trial ran for 10 months from October 2022 to August 2023, with a retrial ordered after a jury was unable to reach a verdict on one count of attempted murder of a baby girl. Last month, the 34-year-old was also found guilty on that count.
Letby was sentenced to 15 whole-life orders, making her only the fourth woman in UK history to be told she will never be released from prison.
The Guardian reported that Letby scribbled notes such as “I am evil I did this” following advice by her GP and hospital bosses to cope with her feelings of extreme stress.
Evidence was presented at the initial trial of her morbid fascination with her crimes: searching the victims’ families on Facebook, hoarding confidential documents about the cases at home and revealing her own thoughts in dense, scrawled notes which included the apparent confession.
She also wrote on a Post-it note found in her house: “I killed them on purpose because I am not good enough to care for them and I am a horrible evil person.”
“Hate” was also written in block capitals with heavy ink and circled, while the note is headed: “Not good enough.”
But sources close to the case told the paper that Kathryn de Berger, head of occupational health and wellbeing at the hospital where she worked, had encouraged Letby to write down her feelings as a way of coping with extreme stress. The sources also said Letby’s Chester GP advised her to write down the thoughts she was struggling to process.
