A BOMBSHELL email has appeared to cast doubt on prosecution claims that Lucy Letby was caught “red-handed”.
Letby, 35, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted across two trials at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others.
Letby lost two attempts to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal last year.
Now, a new email – sent on May 4 2017 to colleagues at the Countess of Chester Hospital – appears to cast significant doubts over the chronology of events.
The memo, revealed yesterday, is a significant boost to Letby’s legal fight to overturn her convictions.
Dr Ravi Jayaram is the only hospital staff member to have claimed to see Letby act suspiciously and link her behaviour directly to babies’ deaths.
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He testified that the nurse was seen standing over Baby K’s cot as the infant’s condition deteriorated.
Taking the stand, the doctor said Letby failed to call for help as the newborn’s condition declined, insisting the nurse had virtually been caught “red handed”.
But prior to the start of the police investigation, Dr Jayaram wrote in an email to colleagues: “At time of deterioration … Staff nurse Letby at incubator and called Dr Jayaram to inform of low saturations.”
The revelatory memo appears to contradict previous testimony, with the evidence not making it into documents handed to cops before the start of the investigation.
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In the newly released email, Dr Jayaram also suggested Baby K’s fragile premature condition was instead the cause of death, saying: “Baby subsequently deteriorated and eventually died, but events around this would fit with explainable events associated with extreme prematurity.”
The note sees him suggest that the baby’s death was explained by issues associated with extreme prematurity.
Appearing at the 2024 trial, the doctor framed her behaviour as suspicious, telling the court: “Lucy Letby was stood next to the incubator.
She wasn’t looking at me. She didn’t have her hands in the incubator.
Asked by prosecutor Nick Johnson KC whether he had “any call for help from Lucy Letby?”, he replied: “No, not at all.
“I was surprised that the alarm was not going off, although my priority was (Baby K) and I didn’t question it at the time.’In retrospect, I was surprised that help was not called, given (Baby K) was a 25-week gestation baby and her saturations were dropping.”
However, at the recent Thirlwall Inquiry, the doctor expressed regret at not raising the alarm over the nurse’s behaviour sooner
He explained: “I lie awake thinking about this … I should have been braver.”
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.
Lady Justice Thirlwall is due to publish in November the findings from the public inquiry into how the former nurse was able to commit her crimes.
In written submissions to the inquiry, Richard Baker KC, said families of Letby’s victims were concerned that medical evidence was being presented at press conferences.
Cheshire Constabulary is continuing a review of deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neonatal units of the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital during Letby’s time as a nurse from 2012 to 2016.
It comes as a panel of medical experts concluded that “no criminal offences had been committed” in the case of child killer Lucy Letby.
The 14-strong panel has provided alternative causes of death.
An international panel of medical experts provided case summaries on all 17 babies who featured in the 10-month trial of Lucy Letby.
Also passed to the CCRC, which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, was a separate report from seven medics which claims the results of insulin tests on two infants, which a jury concluded Letby poisoned, were unreliable.
The charges Letby was convicted on in full
Child A, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby injected air intravenously into the bloodstream of the baby boy. COUNT 1 GUILTY.
Child B, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby attempted to murder the baby girl, the twin sister of Child A, by injecting air into her bloodstream. COUNT 2 GUILTY.
Child C, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said Letby forced air down a feeding tube and into the stomach of the baby boy. COUNT 3 GUILTY.
Child D, allegation of murder. The Crown said air was injected intravenously into the baby girl. COUNT 4 GUILTY.
Child E, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby murdered the twin baby boy with an injection of air into the bloodstream and also deliberately caused bleeding to the infant. COUNT 5 GUILTY.
Child F, allegation of attempted murder. Letby was said by prosecutors to have poisoned the twin brother of Child E with insulin. COUNT 6 GUILTY.
Child G, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby targeted the baby girl by overfeeding her with milk and pushing air down her feeding tube. COUNT 7 GUILTY, COUNT 8 GUILTY, COUNT 9 NOT GUILTY.
Child H, two allegations of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby sabotaged the care of the baby girl in some way which led to two profound oxygen desaturations. COUNT 10 NOT GUILTY, COUNT 11 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child I, allegation of murder. The prosecution said Letby killed the baby girl at the fourth attempt and had given her air and overfed her with milk. COUNT 12 GUILTY.
Child J, allegation of attempted murder. No specific form of harm was identified by the prosecution but they said Letby did something to cause the collapse of the baby girl. COUNT 13 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child K, allegation of attempted murder. The prosecution said Letby compromised the baby girl as she deliberately dislodged a breathing tube. COUNT 14 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child L, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said the nurse poisoned the twin baby boy with insulin. COUNT 15 GUILTY.
Child M, allegation of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby injected air into the bloodstream of Child L’s twin brother. COUNT 16 GUILTY.
Child N, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby inflicted trauma in the baby boy’s throat and also injected him with air in the bloodstream. COUNT 17 GUILTY, COUNT 18 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT, COUNT 19 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child O, allegation of murder. Prosecutors say Letby attacked the triplet boy by injecting him with air, overfeeding him with milk and inflicting trauma to his liver with “severe force”. COUNT 20 GUILTY.
Child P, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said the nurse targeted the triplet brother of Child O by overfeeding him with milk, injecting air and dislodging his breathing tube. COUNT 21 GUILTY.
Child Q, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby injected the baby boy with liquid, and possibly air, down his feeding tube. COUNT 22 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
The Sun revealed last month what Letby’s own parents, Jonathan, 79, and Susan Letby, 65, said about the case.
Statistical misrepresentation consultant, Professor Richard Gill, is among an increasing number of supporters who believe the ex-nurse is innocent.
He has been pushing for a retrial and even joined protesters outside Liverpool Town Hall, where the inquiry was being held, last week.
Professor Gill has previously helped free multiple medical professionals wrongfully convicted of killing patients, including Dutch nurse Lucia de Berk and Italian nurse Daniela Poggiali.
He wrote to the couple and received a personal response from the usually fiercely private pair.
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In one correspondence, seen by The Sun, Letby’s parents reveal they “firmly believe” their daughter’s convictions will be “the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history“.
They thank Prof Gill for his work in support of their daughter’s cause – and that they are pleased “public opinion is beginning to sway” in her favour “at last”.
Medical experts provided case summaries on all 17 babies from the Letby trial
An international panel of medical experts has provided case summaries on all 17 babies who featured in the 10-month trial of Lucy Letby.
The 14-strong panel concluded that no criminal offences had been committed at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016 and instead provided alternative causes of deterioration:
– Baby 1 (known as Child A in the trial): The prosecution said the boy was murdered by an injection of air into the bloodstream which caused an air embolism where bubbles form and block the blood supply. The panel found no evidence of air embolism and said the child had died from thrombosis, where a blood clot forms in a vessel.
– Baby 2 (Child B): The prosecution said Letby attempted to murder Child A’s twin sister by also injecting air into her bloodstream. The panel found no evidence of air embolism and said the child had collapsed from thrombosis.
– Baby 3 (Child C): The prosecution said the boy was murdered with air forced down his feeding tube and into his stomach. The panel said the child died following ineffective resuscitation from a collapse after an “acute small bowel obstruction” that went unrecognised.
– Baby 4 (Child D): The prosecution said the girl was murdered by an injection of air into the bloodstream. The panel found no evidence of air embolism and ruled the child died of systemic sepsis, pneumonia and disseminated intravascular coagulation (blood clotting). Issues with failures to give relevant antibiotics were also identified.
– Baby 5 (Child E): The Crown said Letby murdered the twin boy with an injection of air into the bloodstream and she also deliberately caused bleeding to the infant. The panel said there was no evidence of air embolism and bleeding was caused either by a lack of oxygen pre-birth or a congenital blood vessel condition.
– Baby 6 (Child F): The prosecution said Letby attempted to murder Child E’s twin brother by administering insulin. The panel ruled that the child’s insulin levels and insulin/C-peptide ratio did not prove that exogenous insulin was used and were within the norm for pre-term infants. It added that there was poor medical management of the child’s prolonged hypoglycaemia.
– Baby 7 (Child G): The prosecution said Letby attempted to murder the girl by overfeeding her with milk and forcing air down her feeding tube. The panel said there was no evidence to support air injection into the stomach or overfeeding. The infant’s vomiting and clinical deterioration was due to infection, it found.
– Baby 8 (Child H): Jurors cleared Letby of one count of attempted murder and failed to reach a verdict on a second count. Prosecutors said the nurse sabotaged the girl’s care in some way which led to two profound oxygen desaturations. The panel said the deteriorations were due to medical mismanagement of a tension pneumothorax where air is trapped between the lung and chest wall.
– Baby 9 (Child I): The prosecution said Letby murdered the infant by injecting air into her bloodstream and stomach. The panel said it found no evidence of air injections and that the baby died of breathing complications caused by respiratory distress syndrome and chronic lung disease.
– Baby 10 (Child J): Jurors could not reach a verdict on an allegation of attempted murder. No specific form of harm was identified by the prosecution but they said Letby did something to cause the collapse of the girl. The panel said the deterioration was caused by sepsis and there was no evidence to support malicious airway obstruction.
– Baby 11 (Child K): The prosecution said Letby attempted to murder the girl by deliberately dislodging her breathing tube. Among its findings the panel said there was no evidence to support a dislodged endotracheal tube (ETT) and the clinical deterioration was caused by use of an undersized ETT.
– Baby 12 (Child L): The Crown said the nurse poisoned the boy with insulin. The panel said the infant’s insulin-related levels were within the norm for pre-term infants and there was no evidence of deliberate administration.
– Baby 13 (Child M): Prosecutors said Letby attempted to murder Child L’s twin brother by injecting air into his bloodstream. The panel said there was no evidence of air embolism and his collapse was caused by sepsis or a heart problem.
– Baby 14 (Child N): The Crown said the boy was the victim of attempted murder by inflicted trauma in his throat and an air injection into his bloodstream. The panel said there was no air embolism and it was likely his blood oxygen levels dropped due to his haemophilia condition or routine cares, which was “exacerbated” by repeated attempts to insert a breathing tube.
– Baby 15 (Child O): The prosecution said Letby murdered the triplet boy by injecting air into his bloodstream and inflicting trauma to his liver. The panel said he died from liver damage caused by traumatic delivery, resulting in bleeding in the abdomen and profound shock.
– Baby 16 (Child P): Prosecutors said Letby murdered Child O’s brother by injecting him with air. The panel said there was no evidence to support that mechanism and that he died from a collapsed lung that was “suboptimally managed”.
– Baby 17 (Child Q): Jurors could not reach a verdict on an allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby attempted to murder the boy by injecting liquid, and possibly air, down his feeding tube. The panel said there was no evidence to support air injection into the stomach and the child deteriorated because he had early symptoms of a serious gastrointestinal problem, or sepsis.
