The police force which investigated Lucy Letby is facing mounting political pressure to reveal the basis for the ‘cherry-picked’ statistics that linked her nursing shifts to babies’ deaths.
Senior Tory MP Sir David Davis is insisting that Cheshire Police reveals the basis for the ‘shift table’, which was presented as damning evidence that Letby was always on duty when babies collapsed or died.
Since her convictions in 2023 and 2024, it has emerged that missing from the chart were babies’ deaths or adverse events when the former nurse, 36, was not on duty – casting doubt on the central premise of the prosecution’s case.
Letby was sentenced to 15 whole life terms after being found guilty of killing seven newborns and the attempted murder of seven more at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
In a speech in the Commons last month, Sir David accused Cheshire Police of making ‘egregious’ failures in its investigation and failing to follow official guidance or best professional practice as they ‘fixated’ on building a case against Letby.
He also claimed they ignored signs the neonatal unit in which she worked was failing to provide proper care for vulnerable babies.
The force defended its actions and accused a ‘core group of individuals’ campaigning on behalf of Letby of trying ‘to destroy reputations’ and spread ‘misinformation’.
Now Sir David has demanded that it substantiates its ‘misinformation’ claim.
MP Sir David Davis is insisting that Cheshire Police reveals the basis for the ‘shift table’, which was presented as damning evidence that nurse Lucy Letby (pictured) was always on duty when babies collapsed or died
In a speech in the Commons last month, Sir David Davis (pictured) accused Cheshire Police of making ‘egregious’ failures in its investigation
In a letter to Mark Roberts, Cheshire Police’s chief constable, Sir David wrote: ‘If you or your constabulary believe that you now have any specific rebuttals to any of the points I raised, I would like to receive them in full.’
He asked to see the methodology used to select the 25 deaths or collapses which were included in the shift table.
Sir David added that ‘as a matter of natural justice’ the force should also disclose policy books and logs kept by investigators, notes of meetings with expert witnesses and other key documents.
The juries in Letby’s trials reached their verdicts despite what has been seen by campaigners as an absence of forensic or CCTV evidence and a convincing motive.
Apparent contradictions in the testimony of Dr Dewi Evans, the prosecution’s chief expert witness, have also come under scrutiny.
Last year, Cheshire Police passed evidence on Letby to the Crown Prosecution Service relating to eight more potential offences of attempted murder and one offence of murder.
But after studying the files, it confirmed last month that she would face no further charges.
Her defence team argues that this is because a new trial would have exposed flaws in her original convictions.
Letby was sentenced to 15 whole life terms after being found guilty of killing seven newborns and the attempted murder of seven more at the Countess of Chester Hospital (pictured, file photo)
In his Commons speech, Sir David said the medical management at the Countess of Chester’s neonatal unit was, ‘at worst, appalling’.
The week after Letby was suspended, it was downgraded and prevented from taking any more seriously ill babies.
He said Cheshire Police ignored this and the Letby juries were never told.
He added that the unit had no specialist neonatologists, or neonatal nurses, was short of staff and plagued by infection.
Sir David said that the force built their case around ‘one so-called expert’, Dr Evans, whose evidence one senior judge called ‘worthless’.
Letby’s case is now being examined by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.