Lucy Letby lawyer seeks fresh appeal over reliability of expert witness

Lucy Letby’s attorney has stated that he is trying to reopen her appeal, as the main medical expert for the prosecution, Dr. Dewi Evans, has altered his position on several important pieces of evidence.

During a press conference on Monday, Mark McDonald expressed his belief that Evans could not be considered a trustworthy expert, adding that all the convictions in question might be questionable.

"Today, the defense revealed that it will promptly request the court of appeal's approval to make the unusual yet essential choice to reopen Lucy Letby's appeal and to reassess all of her convictions," McDonald stated.

He also provided information about new medical expert reports prepared for the former nurse's defense by two consultant neonatologists. These reports completely challenge the prosecution's evidence concerning two of the babies for whom Letby was found guilty of killing.

The investigation concerning Baby O challenges the evidence presented by the prosecution against Letby. It claims that a doctor was responsible for the baby's death, asserting that the doctor accidentally punctured the liver with a needle while attempting to reduce swelling in the abdomen.

Dr. Richard Taylor, a neonatologist in Victoria, British Columbia, is part of a group of around 100 medical professionals and other specialists supporting Letby in her defense. He stated that the doctor at the hospital, whose name McDonald did not reveal, likely knew he had committed the act.

Taylor expressed, “If I were in this situation, I would struggle to sleep at night, haunted by the thought that my actions resulted in the death of the baby, and now a nurse is behind bars, facing murder charges.”

Letby, 34 years old, was convicted in two separate trials for the murders of seven infants, which she carried out by injecting them with air. She also tried to murder seven more babies while working as a nurse in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester hospital in 2015 and 2016.

In May, three judges from the court of appeal denied Letby's request to challenge her convictions, mainly focusing on questioning the reliability of Evans.

Since the trials concluded, Evans has consistently defended his role as an expert witness in various media interviews. During the trial, he claimed that Letby caused the deaths of infants by injecting air, either through feeding tubes directly into their stomachs or into their bloodstreams, which led to fatal air embolisms.

McDonald noted: "It's surprising that Dr. Evans has now altered his position regarding the cause of death for three infants." Evans claims that administering air through feeding tubes didn’t actually lead to the babies' deaths; instead, it merely made their conditions worse. This is in contrast to the conclusion drawn during legal proceedings, which identified air injection as the cause of death for those three babies.

Evans has expressed that his view on Baby C's death has shifted. During the trial, he had claimed that the cause was air being injected into the baby's stomach, referencing the excess air visible in an X-ray from June 12, 2015. However, it came to light during the trial that Letby had not been present at the hospital from the day the baby was born, June 10, 2015, until the day of the X-ray.

Evans altered his testimony while on the stand, and has since stated that he now thinks Baby C was murdered by Letby the next night, June 13, 2015, during her shift, probably by injecting air directly into the veins.

McDonald stated, “Dr. Evans informed the jury that Lucy Letby had pumped air into a nasogastric tube, which resulted in the deaths of the three infants. This information was presented again to the Court of Appeal, and they may have been misinformed when deciding on the request to challenge the convictions.”

Two expert neonatologists specializing in the care of premature infants, Dr. Neil Aiton and Dr. Svilena Dimitrova, have compiled assessments regarding babies O and C.

The reports rely on complete access to hospital records, autopsy reports, findings from Evans, testimonies from other expert witnesses, and information from the investigation. They stated that they identified medical reasons for the deaths and found no signs indicating that the two babies were intentionally harmed.

"Our findings indicate that there are specific medical factors that contributed to the illnesses of both infants. Unfortunately, they did not respond to attempts to revive them and ultimately, they died," they explained.

"We have shown that Baby O's death was linked to complications during the resuscitation process. Baby C passed away as a result of complications from poor placental function towards the end of the pregnancy. There is no indication that anyone intentionally harmed these babies."

During the press conference on Monday, Taylor mentioned that the specialists representing Letby argued that the evidence backing her convictions for attempting to murder two infants by injecting them with insulin was not trustworthy.

The Crown Prosecution Service addressed inquiries regarding the evidence by highlighting that the jury found Letby guilty and that the appeals court upheld those convictions. Recently, Cheshire police disclosed that they had interviewed Letby while she was in prison concerning additional infants who either died or suffered serious issues during her employment at Chester hospital and Liverpool women’s hospital.

A representative from the Countess of Chester Hospital stated: "In light of the Thirlwall inquiry and the current police investigations, it is not suitable to respond to or offer guidance on the questions raised at this moment."

The Guardian has reached out to Evans for a response.