Lucy Letby’s lawyers say expert witness has ‘changed his mind’ on cause of death of three babies

Lucy Letby’s legal team has said the lead prosecution expert has “now changed his mind” on the cause of death of three babies, meaning all of her convictions should be reviewed.

Her new lawyer Mark McDonald said Dr Dewi Evans had told the jury Letby had injected air down a nasal gastric tube, leading to the death of the three babies, referred to as C, I and P.

But he said Dr Evans had “remarkably” now “changed his mind on the cause of death of three of the babies”, leading Letby’s lawyers to seek permission from the Court of Appeal to take the “exceptional, but necessary, decision” to apply to reopen her appeal and immediately review all her convictions.

Letby is serving 15 whole life terms in prison for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of seven others while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016.

She attempted to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal twice this year, but lost both bids.

Speaking at a news conference on Monday afternoon, her barrister Mr McDonald said Dr Evans had also “revised his opinion in relation to Baby C” and had given a new report to police, adding: “Despite numerous requests, the prosecution has yet to give this report to the defence.”

He added: “The defence will argue that Dr Evans is not a reliable expert and, given that he was the lead expert for the prosecution, we say that all the convictions are unsafe.”

Mr McDonald also read out a statement from Dr Neil Aiton and Dr Svilena Dimitrova, consultant neonatologists, who said “there are identifiable medical reasons” why babies O and C “became unwell, sadly did not respond to resuscitation and subsequently passed away”.

According to the statement they said evidence shows the babies “could not reasonably be described as ‘well’ or ‘stable’ and neither should their deteriorations be described as ‘unexplained’.

The statement continued: “We have provided evidence that Baby O died due to issues relating to the resuscitation. Baby C died due to problems caused due to failing placental function at the end of the pregnancy.

“We have seen no evidence of deliberate harm to these babies by anyone.”

There is an ongoing public inquiry into how Letby was able to kill and carry on killing at the Countess of Chester Hospital. Its findings are expected to be published in autumn next year.

Police are also continuing their investigation into Letby and the care of hundreds of other babies she looked after during her career.

Detectives have confirmed they interviewed the former nurse under caution in prison over more deaths and incidents in Chester and also at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where she spent time on placement in 2012 and early 2015.

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