The case of British former nurse Lucy Letby, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing seven newborns and attempting to kill eight more at a neonatal unit in England, is now under review after a group of international medical experts who reexamined evidence used at her trial concluded none had actually been murdered.
The chairman of the panel, Canadian neonatologist and University of Toronto professor Dr. Shoo Lee, outlined the group’s findings at a dramatic press conference in London on Tuesday, saying they found no evidence of the crimes Letby is serving time for.
“Our conclusion was there was no medical evidence to support malfeasance causing injury in any of the 17 cases in the trial,” he said, referring to the original charge of harming 17 babies.
He added: “In summary, ladies and gentlemen, we did not find any murders.”
Retired medic Shoo Lee looks up at a large screen as he takes part in a press conference to announce “new medical evidence” from an international panel of neonatologists in connection with the conviction of British nurse Lucy Letby, in London, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.
Alastair Grant / The Associated Press
He did, however, say that the 14-member panel found serious failings in the management of neonatal conditions at the Countess of Chester Hospital, where Letby worked in 2015 and 2016, and that there were errors in medical care. He also said some of the babies’ deaths were preventable.
In August of 2023, a judge handed Letby the most severe sentence possible under British law, a whole-life order, which ensured Letby would remain in prison until her death. At a retrial almost a year later, in July of 2024, she was found guilty of trying to kill a premature baby girl at the same hospital.
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Letby, 35, was the fourth-ever woman to be given this sentence in the U.K.
During her trial, court heard that she attacked vulnerable newborns by various means, including injecting air into their bloodstreams that caused an air embolism that blocked the blood supply, between June 2015 and June 2016.
She was also convicted of harming two babies by poisoning them with insulin, pumping air into their feeding tube, force-feeding one with milk and causing trauma to the abdomen. However, nobody saw Letby attack the seven babies she was convicted of murdering, nor did anyone witness the attempted murder of seven others.
She has maintained her innocence the entire time.
Since her trial, however, medical specialists and other supporters have questioned her guilt, suggesting that expert evidence presented by the prosecution to the jury was flawed.
Court artist drawing by Elizabeth Cook dated June 24, 2024, of Lucy Letby giving evidence during her trial at Manchester Crown Court, in Manchester, England.
Elizabeth Cook / PA via AP
Her lawyer Mark McDonald said new medical findings from the international experts “demolished” the case against her.
Lee, who co-authored an academic paper on air embolism in babies that was used during Letby’s lengthy trial, told Tuesday’s conference that “the evidence was wrong.”
“The evidence that was used to convict her was wrong and for me that is a problem,” he said, adding that the panel came to the conclusion that the evidence “does not support murder in any of these cases.”
Instead, he said, the Countess of Chester’s neonatal unit was overworked, staffed by “inadequate numbers of appropriately trained” clinicians and had plumbing issues.
“If this had happened at a hospital in Canada, it would be shut down,” he said.
McDonald, who became Letby’s lawyer last year, said her original legal team failed to produce any of their own medical experts during the trial, meaning “all you were left with was the evidence of prosecution experts.”
“This is fresh evidence. This is new evidence. It’s compelling evidence because of the nature of people who are giving that evidence, and it wasn’t heard by the jury,” he said.
Lee’s panel included specialists from Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, Sweden and the United States. On Tuesday, Lee said that they planned to release their findings, no matter if they were favourable or unfavourable for Letby.
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