There is ‘no evidence’ to prove that Lucy Letby murdered any babies, a panel of the world’s top neonatal experts has claimed. The 35-year-old former nurse is currently serving 15 whole-life orders for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of seven others in her care at the Countess of Chester Hospital. But following an in-depth analysis of the deaths by a ‘dream team’ of the world’s top 14 neonatalists, no medical evidence of murder was found.

At a press conference on Tuesday, MP Sir David Davis described her convictions as ‘one of the major injustices of modern times’. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. Up Next. Presenting the panel’s findings, retired medic Dr Shoo Lee, who co-authored a 1989 academic paper on air embolism in babies which was cited by prosecuters, said his research had been falsely used to convict Letby.

After conducting an ‘impartial evidence-based report’, he told journalists: ‘We did not find any murders. In all cases, death or injury were due to natural causes or just bad medical care.’. He also criticised the care provided at Countess of Chester Hospital and said ‘if this was a hospital in Canada, it would be shut down. ‘It would not be happening.’. Letby was convicted for attacking and killing infants by various means while a nurse on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

One such method was injecting air into the bloodstream, which caused an air embolism that blocked the blood supply and led to sudden and unexpected collapses. But after reviewing each case, Dr Lee said the panel found the babies had died from a variety of natural causes, none of which involved air embolisms or showed any signs of murder. ‘The notion that these cases are air embolisms because [the babies] collapse and because there were skin rashes has no basis in evidence. Let’s be clear about that,’ he told the panel.

One baby was found to have died from thrombosis, the panel concluded, while another died from sepsis. Infection and ‘traumatic delivery’ were believed to the causes of deaths for other babies, while there was ‘no proof’ that another died after having its oxygen tube dislodged, which was another method Letby was accused of using to kill the infants. Letby lost two bids last year to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal – in May for seven murders and seven attempted murders, and in October for the attempted murder of a baby girl which she was convicted of by a different jury at a retrial.

At the first of those appeals, a bid to admit fresh evidence from Dr Lee was rejected as three senior judges concluded there had been no prosecution expert evidence diagnosing air embolus solely on the basis of skin discolouration. Davis has repeatedly called for a retrial for Letby, claiming he believed the ‘tabloid narrataive’ about her conviction until he was contacted by medics and academics.

Letby lost two bids last year to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal, and has exhausted further attempts unless significant new evidence is presented which was not available during her first trial. But after presenting their findings, Letby’s lawyer Mark McDonald says the medical case against his client has been ‘demolished’. He told reporters: ‘Lucy Letby was convicted because of the medical evidence that was presented to the jury.

‘If that evidence was at fault and was wrong, the conviction is unsafe.’. McDonald said there was a ‘valid explanation’ for all other evidence against Letby, but the medical evidence used to convict her ‘has been demolished’ today. In December, McDonald said he would also seek permission from the Court of Appeal to apply to reopen her case on the grounds that Dr Dewi Evans, the lead prosecution medical expert at her trial, was ‘not reliable’.

His claims were backed up today by Dr Lee, who said he and the panel of international medical experts have written thousands of peer-reviewed papers on the subject between them, whereas Dr Evans has written nothing. ‘This is the cream of the crop, the dream team of neonatology. You’re not going to find any better than this,’ he said. ‘Dr. Evans, I don’t know him either, and you tell me that he hasn’t published anything. If you look at this panel there’s probably about 500 years of experience.

‘These people, these are the heads of units of the top institutions in the world. So I would trust their judgement.’. Retired consultant paediatrician Dr Dewri Evans said concerns regarding his evidence were ‘unsubstantiated, unfounded, inaccurate’. A CCRC spokesperson confirmed they had 0received a preliminary application to reopen Letby’s case, and were assessing the new evidence submitted to them.