Medical experts dispute evidence used to convict British nurse Lucy Letby of murder

A panel of experts has cast doubt on the medical evidence used to convict British nurse Lucy Letby of murdering seven newborns and attempting to murder seven others. The doctors leading the review stated that the panel believes the infants' deaths were due to natural causes or substandard medical care.

Dr. Dewi Evans, a retired neonatologist from Canada, stated at a press conference in London on Tuesday (early Wednesday AEST), "In summary, ladies and gentlemen, we found no evidence of murder."

Letby, 35, was sentenced to multiple life sentences without parole for murder and attempted murder during her time as a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between June 2015 and June 2016. Defense lawyer Mark McDonald stated that there is now "overwhelming evidence" that Letby was wrongly convicted and is "imprisoned for life for crimes that never happened." McDonald said, "Lucy Letby was convicted on the basis of medical evidence that was presented to the jury. And that evidence has today been overturned."

Letby has had two applications to appeal rejected, but her legal team has asked the Criminal Cases Review Commission to review her convictions, which could lead to another chance to appeal. Prosecutors stated that Letby left little trace when killing the babies, in some cases injecting air into their bloodstreams or stomachs, causing embolisms. The Crown Prosecution Service has not commented on the new medical panel's conclusions. Prosecutors previously stated that two juries had convicted Letby and three appeal judges rejected her argument that the prosecution's expert evidence was flawed.

This is the second press conference partly hosted by McDonald aimed at challenging the conclusions of Dr. Dewi Evans, a key expert witness for the prosecution. At the previous press conference, McDonald stated that Evans was an unreliable witness because he changed his conclusions about the manner of death for three of the babies. Evans later stated that the concerns about his evidence were "baseless, unfounded, and inaccurate."

Li Xiu stated that Evans diagnosed air embolisms in the infants without finding other causes of death. But Li Xiu said that embolisms are very rare, and the skin discoloration described at the trial did not match what happens when an embolism occurs. Li Xiu said, "To suggest that these babies can be diagnosed as having air emboli, simply because they collapsed and had these skin discolorations, there's actually no evidence for that."

In one case where Letby was accused of overfeeding a baby, the panel concluded that the child became ill due to a viral infection and recovered after a week on antibiotics. An independent public inquiry into hospital errors that led to babies repeatedly being harmed is expected to conclude next month. The inquiry will not review the evidence used to convict Letby, but rather aims to hold hospital staff and management accountable and investigate the treatment of parents.