Inquiry blasts hospital for failure to protect babies after nurse Lucy Letby convicted of 7 murders

Thirlwall’s inquiry didn’t review Letby’s convictions, but looked at how institutional failures exposed babies to harm at the hospital, and how staff and management responded and treated parents.

She focused on the failure of staff to intervene when it became clear someone was deliberately harming babies.

“How many lives could have been saved had the hospital acted differently?” she said. “It is clear that some babies would have been saved and some attacks would have been prevented if action was taken earlier.”

Letby was convicted in 2023 of the murders of seven infants and attempted murders 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 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 that 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.”

Thirlwall’s report describes how numerous children were harmed, but concerns either weren’t raised or suspicions weren’t elevated to managers.

“This did not happen,” Thirlwall said. “The collapses and deaths continued.”

Even once the hospital began to review the spike in infant mortality and connections to Letby’s work shifts — and even after the nurse had been placed on administrative duties in July 2016 — police weren’t called until May 2017. Letby remained at the hospital until her arrest more than a year later.

Lawyers for Letby tried unsuccessfully to halt the inquiry by saying it could reach the wrong conclusions if her convictions are later reversed.

Defense attorney Mark McDonald said that the conclusions of the inquiry were tainted by errors at trial and accepting that Letby intentionally killed the children.

“The alternative narrative identified by nearly 30 internationally renowned experts has not been properly considered,” McDonald said. “The inquiry would have been able to hear an alternative account — one that said that insulin results were unreliable, one that said the deaths did not stop when Lucy left the unit.”

Thirlwall said that she didn’t consider the debate over Letby’s guilt because the Court of Appeal had rejected her legal challenges “with a very clear result.” Thirlwall said the people challenging the evidence hadn’t been at the trial and she said “all of this noise” caused additional distress to parents “who have already suffered far too much.”

McDonald has presented new evidence to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, or CCRC, which looks into possible injustices and could trigger another court challenge.

A review of the medical evidence used at trial by a panel of experts convened by McDonald found no sign of a crime and concluded that natural causes or bad medical care led to the demise of each of the newborns.

The group of international experts in neonatology and pediatrics found there were inadequate staffing levels, and medical workers lacked proper skills, misdiagnosed ailments and acted slowly in treating acutely ill babies.

Brian Melley, The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

Inquiry blasts hospital for failure to protect babies after nurse Lucy Letby convicted of 7 murders

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