The chair of the public inquiry into the murder of babies by Lucy Letby has rejected calls to pause her investigation.
Lady Justice Thirlwall was urged by the jailed nurse and former executives at the Countess of Chester hospital to halt the inquiry until the outcome of Letby’s legal appeals.
Lawyers for Letby, 35, argued that there was “overwhelming and compelling” evidence undermining the guilty verdicts, so it would be wrong to continue with Thirlwall’s report.
The judge, however, rejected those submissions in a ruling handed down on Wednesday. She said: “It is not the actions of Lucy Letby that I am scrutinising. It is the actions of all those who were in the hospital within the terms of reference whose actions I am reviewing: what they did at the time, in light of what they knew at the time and in light of what they should have known at the time.”
Four of the hospital’s former bosses, including its ex-chief executive Tony Chambers, had also called for the inquiry to be paused, arguing that there was a “real likelihood” Letby was innocent.
Thirlwall has been examining the circumstances of the deaths and non-fatal collapses since September and has received evidence from hundreds of witnesses. The senior appeal court judge is due to publish her report in November.
The calls to pause the inquiry came after an international panel of experts convened by Letby’s legal team said there was no medical evidence she had murdered or harmed any of the infants she was accused of attacking.
The former children’s nurse is serving 15 whole-life prison terms after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill another seven in the year to June 2016.
Letby, who has always protested her innocence, has lost two attempts to overturn her convictions at the court of appeal.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, is examining fresh material submitted by a range of experts on behalf of Letby last month.
The families of the babies said the appeals – which came in the final week of hearings at Liverpool town hall – were an attempt by Letby to “control the narrative” and by the executives to avoid criticism.
Thirlwall said in her ruling that Letby and the executives were asking for an “effective suspension” of the inquiry and that it would “appear to be a very lengthy one”.
She said it would add to rather than reduce the cost of the inquiry – currently running at nearly £10m – and rejected the idea that publishing her report on the basis of Letby’s guilt would be unfair to the hospital bosses.
Thirlwall said hospital staff and others had already made a large number of concessions, which amounted to an acknowledgment that there had been a “total failure of safeguarding at every level”. She said this would inevitably feature in her report.
It is understood the hospital executives, who are expected to be heavily criticised, are unlikely to challenge the ruling, given the cost of launching a judicial review.
Thirlwall said she had previously rejected an attempt to amend the rules of the inquiry to allow it to consider alternative causes of death, because it would have meant the proceedings were “used as a vehicle for a collateral attack on the convictions, cutting across the criminal justice system”.
She said the attempts to pause the inquiry had been prompted by a press conference that Letby’s legal team held in February, when an international panel of experts set out the case against her convictions.
She quoted Richard Baker KC, a barrister for the families of 12 of the babies, who said on Tuesday: “Whatever side of the debate people are on, people should remember that the dead and the harmed are not public property to be dissected on the television or on the internet.”
Thirlwall had been urged to publish only certain parts of her report, such as her recommendations for changes to NHS rules and governance, but she rejected that approach. There was a danger, she said, that her findings would “lose their impetus for not being attached to the facts”.
Mark McDonald, Letby’s barrister, said the inquiry’s findings may be seen as “wholly unreliable”.
“There is now overwhelming evidence that Lucy Letby’s convictions are unsafe. I will continue to represent her without fear or favour and ensure the many flaws in the case are put before the court of appeal,” he said.
“If the numerous experts who have come forward are right, a young innocent woman is in prison for crimes she has not committed.
“It is a shame the inquiry have not taken this on board and paused and, sadly, despite millions of pounds being spent, any report and recommendations may be seen as wholly unreliable.”
