Comments on the validity of Lucy Letby’s convictions have created a “noise that caused an enormous amount of stress” for the parents of the victims, a judge warned on the opening day of a public inquiry.
Letby, 34, was sentenced to 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted across two trials of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others.
The inquiry at Liverpool town hall will examine events at the Countess of Chester hospital’s neonatal unit where Letby was a nurse between 2015 and 2016.
Opening the hearings, Lady Justice Thirlwall said doubts cast on Letby’s convictions in recent reports had come “entirely from people who were not at the trial”.
Thirlwall said it was not for her to review the convictions, and the court of appeal had done that with a “clear result”; three senior judges denied Letby permission to appeal in a 58-page judgment published in May.
“In the months since the court of appeal judgment there has been a huge of outpouring of comment from a variety of quarters on the validity of the convictions,” Thirlwall said.
“So far as I’m aware it has come entirely from people who were not at the trial. Parts of the evidence have been selected and criticised as has the conduct of the defence at trial, about which those defence lawyers can say nothing.
“All of this noise has caused additional enormous stress for the parents who have suffered far too much. It’s not for me to set about reviewing the convictions. The court of appeal has done that with a very a clear result. The convictions stand.”
Some of the parents of the victims were understood to be present at the inquiry, sitting behind a large screen away from the view of press, public and legal teams.
Thirlwall said that at the heart of the inquiry were “the babies who died and were injured, and their parents”. “I do not presume to describe the emotions those parents have already experienced and what lies ahead,” she said.
The counsel to the inquiry, Rachel Langdale KC, went over the evidence in Letby’s two trials before outlining some of the key moments at the Countess of Chester hospital including the conduct of staff at the hospital and whether suspicions should have been raised earlier.
Langdale said the first recorded mention of involvement of the police that the inquiry had so far identified appeared on 29 June 2016 – nearly a year before the police were actually approached.
A number of meetings were held on that day in June 2016. A director of corporate and legal services took notes of the meeting that read: “ADVICE: ‘Police’ need to be involved now. Death of triplets has raised concern Nurse was on duty at deaths Sufficient level of concern that illegal activity in neonatal.”
Langdale also told the inquiry that on 2 July 2015 there was a meeting to discuss the deaths of three babies – which “with hindsight … may represent a significant opportunity missed”.
The meeting was attended by consultants and directors and was referred to as an “extraordinary executive serious incident panel” to “identify if there was any commonality which linked the deaths” but concluded “no further investigation was warranted at this stage as there were no concerns highlighted in the obstetric or neonatal reviews”.
Langdale earlier made reference to the serial killer nurse Beverley Allitt, who was convicted of four counts of murder, three of attempted murder and a further six of grievous bodily harm on children at the Grantham and Kesteven hospital in Lincolnshire in the 1990s.
She said the inquiry would hear that the crimes of Allitt formed part of the training course Letby underwent at the University of Chester.
The comments at the start of the long-awaited inquiry come after reports highlighting doubts over Letby’s convictions.
A group including some of the UK’s leading neonatal experts and professors of statistics called on the government to postpone or change the terms of the inquiry over the concerns.
At the weekend, legal representatives said reports calling into question Letby’s convictions had been upsetting for the families of the victims. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Tamlin Bolton said: “I can’t stress enough how upsetting that has been for all of the families that I represent.”
The inquiry will continue on Wednesday with further opening statements and is expected to last nearly five months with a report expected in autumn 2025.
