Senior Tory to lead Commons debate on convicted child serial killer Lucy Letby
Sir David Davis has raised questions about the case of the former nurse, who is serving 15 whole-life orders.
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Your support makes all the difference.A Conservative MP who believes convicted child serial killer Lucy Letby should face a retrial will lead a House of Commons debate on her case on Wednesday.
Former cabinet minister Sir David Davis has spent time probing the case of the former nurse and believes a retrial would “come to a different conclusion”.
Letby, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.
Sir David has secured an adjournment debate titled the “role of expert witnesses and the trial of Lucy Letby”.
It will be the final business of Wednesday’s sitting and he will receive a response from a Government minister.
Lawyers for Letby last month said they would make a fresh bid to challenge her convictions on the grounds that the lead prosecution medical expert at her trial was “not reliable”.
Her barrister, Mark McDonald, said he would immediately seek permission from the Court of Appeal to take the “exceptional but necessary decision” to apply to reopen her case.
Mr McDonald, speaking at a press conference, said that “remarkably” Dr Dewi Evans had changed his mind over the mechanism of death involving three of Letby’s murder victims.
But retired consultant paediatrician Dr Evans responded by saying Mr McDonald’s observations regarding his evidence were “unsubstantiated, unfounded, inaccurate”.
Goole and Pocklington MP Sir David, writing on social media platform X, said last month: “I spent months investigating the Letby case, reading about the evidence every day in court, and thought Letby deserved a new trial.
“Having been at the press conference organised by Letby’s new KC, the experts reinforced my view that a retrial would come to a different conclusion.”
Letby was convicted of attacking infants in her care at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit by various means, including injecting air via feeding tubes, injecting air into the bloodstream, assault, force feeding with milk and poisoning with insulin.
She lost two bids last year to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal – in May for seven murders and seven attempted murders, and in October for the attempted murder of a baby girl which she was convicted of by a different jury at a retrial.
The Thirlwall Inquiry is examining events at the Countess of Chester Hospital and their implications following the trial, and subsequent convictions, of Letby.