Child killer Lucy Letby appoints new barrister who as soon as stood trial for sexual grooming of a teen

Baby killer Lucy Letby has appointed a barrister who once stood trial and was acquitted of sexual grooming of a teenage boy to represent her at inquests into the deaths of her victims.

The Daily Mail has learned that Anton van Dellen, 55, will be the former neo-natal nurse’s counsel at any future coroner’s court hearings.

Dr van Dellen, originally from South Africa, is a qualified doctor and worked as a surgeon and senior manager in the NHS, including as deputy chief executive of Staffordshire Ambulance Service and head of the Welsh Ambulance Service, before studying law at Cambridge and being called to the bar in 2010.

Two years later, however, in November 2012, he went on trial at Basildon Crown Court accused of grooming a 15-year-old boy for sex after befriending him on Facebook.

He allegedly drove the teenager, from Benfleet, Essex, to a secluded spot before locking the doors of his car and encouraging him to carry out a sex act.

Dr van Dellen denied one charge of meeting a child aged under 16 after sexual grooming, saying he was not interested in sex with the boy, who made the first advances towards him, and was subsequently cleared by a jury.

The barrister, who is based at Fraser Chambers, in London, is a specialist in defamation and privacy law. He carries out regular pro bono work and also sits as a coroner in West London.

According to his profile on the chambers’ website, he qualified as a doctor and surgeon at the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, in 1994. However, he no longer practices medicine after removing himself from the medical register in May 2010.

Dr van Dellen has also delivered expert witness training for medics via the Royal Society of Medicine and provided ‘a range of other medico-legal training for other NHS organisations.’

Notable cases he has been involved with include the inquests into the victims of serial rapist and killer Stephen Port, who is serving a whole life sentence for the murder of four young gay men and a string of sex assaults between June 2014 and September 2015. 

Dr van Dellen represented the partner of Daniel Whitworth, one of Port’s victims, at the hearings which concluded that failings by the Metropolitan Police left Port free to continue his killing spree.

More recently, he also presided over the inquest of Strictly Come Dancing star Robin Windsor, 44, who took his own life, in February 2024, and the inquest of Michael Brudenell-Bruce, the 8th Marquess of Ailesbury, who killed himself by throwing himself out of the window of his London home, in May the same year.

Inquests into the deaths of five of Letby’s victims were opened and adjourned last month.

The babies, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were among seven infants murdered by the former neo-natal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital, between June 2015 and June 2016.

Letby, formerly of Hereford, has always maintained her innocence but has twice failed to be given leave to appeal her convictions.

Her legal team have submitted reports from new medical experts to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which reviews potential miscarriages of justice, in a bid to get her case heard by Court of Appeal judges a third time.

Mark McDonald, Letby’s other barrister, who is leading her bid for freedom, has claimed that opening the inquests was a ‘cynical’ attempt to alter the babies’ death certificates – the original certificates stated that the infants died of natural causes – at a time when Letby’s guilt is being challenged.

Letby was granted ‘interested party’ status by Jacqueline Devonish, senior coroner for Cheshire, at the inquests, which means her lawyers will be entitled to receive evidence, ask questions to witnesses and make legal arguments.

At a hearing last month, Ms Devonish formally opened and adjourned inquests into the deaths of Baby C, a premature baby boy murdered on the hospital’s neo-natal unit in June 2015; Baby E, a twin boy murdered in August 2015; Baby I, a premature baby girl killed in October 2015, and Babies O and P, two triplet brothers murdered on successive shifts, in June 2016.

Brief details of each child’s birth, collapse and subsequent death were read out by coroner’s officer Detective Inspector Darren Reid, who said the inquests had been requested because there was a ‘reason to suspect an unnatural death.’

Ms Devonish said she was formally suspending the hearings until after Lady Justice Kathryn Thirlwall, the judge overseeing the public inquiry investigating Letby’s crimes, had delivered her report later this year.

Ms Devonish said there would be a further review of the cases on May 5, before full inquests are held over two weeks from September 14.

An inquest has already been held into the death of Baby A, a twin boy who was Letby’s first victim and was killed in June 2015.

A coroner recorded a narrative conclusion into his death, in October 2016, which stated it could not be determined what caused the youngster’s collapse and subsequent death, or whether it was due to a natural or unnatural event.

The court heard his parents do not want his inquest reopened.

Letby was removed from clinical duties in July 2016 after consultant paediatricians raised concerns that she may be deliberately harming babies but those fears were not mentioned at Baby A’s inquest.

Cheshire Constabulary was not called in by hospital bosses until May 2017 to investigate an spike in baby deaths.

An inquest has also previously been opened, in January 2016, into the death of Baby D, a full-term baby girl, who was also murdered in June the previous year.

The coronial investigation was later suspended as criminal proceedings got under way.

Ms Devonish further suspended the inquest into her death to the same review and inquest dates later this year.

Letby is serving a record 15 whole life terms after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more – one of whom she attacked twice – over two trials at Manchester Crown Court, in August 2023 and July 2024.

At an earlier hearing Richard Baker KC, representing families of the deceased babies, said the inquests should not be used as a ‘collateral attack’ on Letby’s convictions.

He said the coroner was ‘bound’ by the guilty verdicts in law and ‘couldn’t act in any way that is inconsistent with them.’

Mr McDonald claimed he was ‘acutely aware’ that the inquests were ‘not the forum to re-litigate the convictions.’

But he claimed there were ‘systemic’ problems on the hospital’s neo-natal unit when the babies died.

In January, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced it would not bring further charges against Letby.

Cheshire Constabulary had submitted files of evidence to consider alleged offences of murder and attempted murder related to two infants who died and seven who survived.

However, CPS chiefs concluded the evidential test was not met in any of the cases.