Lucy Letby lost her right to appeal – so why is she being allowed to bring new evidence?
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has received an application on behalf of Lucy Letby.
How is this possible when the courts have denied her the right to any further appeal?
On 4th February a panel of experts outlined their new findings a lengthy press conference in central London. They declared they had not found any evidence of murder.
So what next? Could Letby really get another chance to appeal?
The CCRC will now review all the evidence. If they believe there’s a potential miscarriage of justice, they can indeed refer the case back to appellate court.
There is of course already striking precedent here.
There are three possible outcomes for Letby if the CCRC refer the case back:
- The Court of Appeal upholds the original verdict
- The original verdict is quashed, and a retrial is called
- No retrial takes place, but the verdict is quashed and Letby walks free.
It’s one to watch in the coming months, and perhaps even years. And we’ll keep you posted with analysis at each stage.
However, let us not forget the real victims here – the bereaved families. One can only imagine the toll this agonising saga must be having on them.
Whether Letby is a murderer or the victim of a miscarriage of justice, these families deserve the truth.
A quick reminder of the background to this case
On 18th August 2023, Lucy Letby, a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital, was found guilty of murdering seven newborn babies and attempting to murder six others between June 2015 and June 2016, by injecting them with air, force-feeding them milk, or poisoning them with insulin​.
She was sentenced to a whole-of-life prison order, meaning that if her conviction is not overturned, she will never be eligible for parole. This places her in a very exclusive club, with only four other women in British history having been given whole-of-life sentences – Rosemary West, Myra Hindley, Joanna Dennehy, and Mairead Philpott.
