Lucy Letby’s legal team to challenge conviction after ‘key witness changed mind’

Lucy Letby’s lawyers have announced a fresh bid to challenge the child serial killer’s convictions after a key witness ‘changed his mind on the cause of death of three babies’.

Speaking at a press conference, Letby’s barrister Mark McDonald said he would immediately seek permission from the Court of Appeal to reopen the case after expert witness Dr Dewi Evans ‘remarkably’ changed his mind.

He told those in attendance: ‘Dr Evans had said to the jury that Lucy Letby had injected air down a nasal gastric tube and this had led to the death of the three babies.

‘This was repeated to the Court of Appeal, who may have been misled when they ruled on the application for leave against the convictions.

‘Dr Evans has also said that he has revised his opinion in relation to Baby C and has written a new report, a new report that he has given to the police, months ago now.

‘Despite numerous requests, the prosecution has yet to give this report to the defence.

‘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 not safe.’

Letby, 34, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was found guilty of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others while working as a neo-natal nurse between June 2015 and June 2016.

She has already lost two bids to challenge her convictions this year at the Court of Appeal– one in May for the seven murders and attempted murders, and another in October for the attempted murder of a baby girl, which saw her found guilty by a different jury at a retrial.

Sean Caulfield, partner and criminal defence lawyer at Hodge Jones & Allen, said: ‘It is vanishingly rare for a lead expert witness in a criminal case to ‘change his mind’ on key evidence.

‘It is also rare for there to be a bid to reopen an appeal after it has already been refused by the Court of Appeal. I have never seen these two things happen in unison during my 20-year plus career. It is quite an astonishing turn of events.

‘The combination of both of these events makes this situation almost unheard of. If the evidence from this lead expert, Dr Evans, was central to the conviction then the fact he may now have changed his mind on what he said may be enough to re-open this appeal.

‘The key question here is how central this expert witness was to the case and that is ultimately what the Court of Appeal will be considering.

‘The chances of success will rest on the relevance of Dr Evans’s evidence and whether the Court of Appeal agree the conviction may now be unsafe.’

The Thirlwall Inquiry into how Letby was able to commit her crimes has heard evidence at Liverpool Town Hall since September and will resume in January, with findings expected to be published in autumn 2025.

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