Ben Madilynn
LONDON — A hospital in northwest England where a neonatal nurse was convicted of murdering seven babies and trying to kill seven others is facing an inquiry into how so many newborns were harmed.
The investigation at the Countess of Chester Hospital begins Tuesday against a push by supporters of former nurse Lucy Letby for a legal review of the evidence used against her.
But the inquiry being held in Liverpool won’t review the legal basis for Letby’s convictions. Instead, it will look at what failures led babies to repeatedly be harmed, how complaints by staff were managed and how parents were treated.
It will also explore the culture within the National Health Service, which had a similar scandal when nurse Beverley Allitt was convicted of killing four infants and attacking nine others at Grantham Hospital in 1991.
“Everyone was determined that it would not happen again,” said Justice Kathryn Thirlwall, an appellate judge leading the inquiry. “It has happened again. This is utterly unacceptable. I want to know what recommendations were made in all these inquiries, I want to know whether they were implemented? What difference did they make? Where does accountability lie for errors that are made?”
Letby, 34, was convicted in 2023 of murder for seven infants and attempted murder of six others — including two attempts on one child. A case in which jurors couldn’t reach a decision was retried and Letby was convicted in July of another attempted murder. She was sentenced to 15 life terms with no chance of release — only the fourth woman in the United Kingdom to receive such a term.
Prosecutors said she harmed babies in ways that left little trace, including injecting air into their bloodstreams, administering air or milk into their stomachs via nasogastric tubes, poisoning them with insulin and interfering with breathing tubes.
She was the only employee on duty in the neonatal unit when the children collapsed or died between June 2015 and June 2016. Prosecutors described her as a “constant malevolent presence.”
Letby testified that she never harmed a child and still maintains she is innocent.
Although her appeals were rejected, another lawyer hopes to bring new evidence before the Criminal Cases Review Commission, or CCRC, which looks into possible injustices and could trigger an appeal. / AP
