Killer nurse Lucy Letby replaces authorized crew to have convictions overturned

Baby killer Lucy Letby has replaced her legal team in the hope that she could be released from prison.

Her new lawyer Mark McDonald said he believed there is a “strong case” to be made for her innocence. The former NHS neonatal nurse was convicted in two separate trials for the murders of seven babies and attempted murders of an additional seven in her care at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Following the trial she was sentenced to multiple whole-life jail terms. However, her new barrister said he “knew almost from the start” that there was a strong case for her innocence, reports The Mirror.

Letby has recently enlisted McDonald as her new lawyer after shedding her previous representatives, who had led her defence during the two trials and two failed appeal attempts. Since taking on the role earlier this week, Mr McDonald has spoken publicly about his and his client’s plans to launch a new appeal after claiming that “juries get it wrong”.

Mr McDonald said he has started preparing to take Letby’s case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), and apply for it to be sent back to the Court of Appeal, which rejected the two previous appeal attempts. He told the BBC that, like jurors, the judicial body is also “wrong” sometimes.

He said: “I knew almost from the start, following this trial, that there is a strong case that she is innocent. The fact is juries get it wrong. And yes, so do the Court of Appeal, history teaches us that.” Speaking to Channel 5 News, the barrister said there was “absolutely” a strong case for her defence, and added that he was asking legal officials to return the case to the courts on “fresh evidence”.

The new evidence in question, he said, includes medical – specifically neonatological – and statistical evidence, with the defence set to explore how insulin fitted into the deaths of the young children.

He told the channel: “I’ve been so encouraged by the amount of people that have come forward, experts in neonatology, anaesthetics, pathology, statistics that have come forward and have identified flaws in the trial that now want to give evidence for her and will want to…assist.”

After being pressed on the “robust” conclusions drawn by jurors, the barrister added that, so too, were those drawn during cases marking some of the “biggest miscarriages of justice in UK history”. An inquiry into the Countess of Chester hospital and the NHS’s handling of the case is due to start on September 10.

For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.