An absence of ‘direct forensic evidence’? The number of Lucy Letby dissenters grows
An absence of ‘direct forensic evidence’? The number of Lucy Letby dissenters grows
Plus: a Lyceum transformation and the beginnings of Stockholm-on-the-Mersey
Dear readers — after two weeks of violence and rioting up and down the country, it seems the dust has finally begun to settle. While further riots were predicted last Wednesday (we were stationed ready for them) counter protestors stood together in Liverpool and deterred the far-right from gathering outside an asylum centre in St Anne’s Centre.
No doubt we can expect a long period of appraisals and reflection, but for the time being let’s just be thankful it seems to be over. This week’s Post promises a return to normality of sorts; the return of an old friend on Wednesday, a fascinating historical deep-dive into the the clouded legacy of the industrialist Lord Leverhulme at the weekend, and some Liverpool City Council shenanigans sandwiched in the middle (because it wouldn’t be a true return to normality without that).
If you missed any of last week’s coverage of the riots, here’s a quick reminder of what we published.
The Post teamed up with our sister titles in Sheffield, Manchester and Birmingham this weekend for an analysis of what sparked the riots, and added fuel to the fire as the days went on. “The riots have been blamed on everything from the economy to Elon Musk,” Jack writes. “But the networks that mobilised violence on our streets were forged in opposition to vaccines and lockdowns.” It’s a long-read, we won’t lie to you about that, but if you want to understand what happened and why we’d implore you to take the time.
Also last week David Lloyd published this heart-wrenching piece following the arson attack on the Spellow Hub library in Walton, meeting a community trying to pick up the pieces.
And Jack’s original piece reporting on-the-ground from the initial riot in Southport that set everything off has now been read by 24,000 of you.
Editor’s note: While all of our reporting about the riots has been free to read, it is anything but free to produce this kind of in-depth journalism. It takes countless hours of research and our reporters put themselves in dangerous positions to obtain vital stories. If you value what we do and want to support us on our mission, then please click the button below. Thank you.
The World Cup of Tennis comes to Manchester
From today’s sponsor: Great Britain’s best tennis stars will go head to head against Canada, Argentina and Finland at The Davis Cup in September. Being hosted at the AO arena in Manchester, it’s just a short train journey from Liverpool to Manchester Victoria, which is right next to the arena. Big names, including Cameron Norrie and Milos Raonic, will be taking to the court. Tickets are selling for as little as £10, with premium options and hospitality packages available.
To book your tickets, click here.
If you’d like to sponsor a briefing, get in touch with us at daniel@millmediaco.uk
The big story: An absence of ‘direct forensic evidence’? Doubts cast over Lucy Letby’s conviction
Top line: Almost a year has passed since the murder trial of nurse Lucy Letby, which resulted in seven murder convictions (and eight for attempted murder), making her one of the most prolific killers in UK criminal history. But in the months since, a growing number of dissenting voices have emerged. While many remain adamant justice was served correctly, some high-profile scientists have argued that the absence of direct forensic evidence in her case threatens the security of her conviction.
Context: Letby, 34, had previously worked at Liverpool Women’s Hospital before becoming a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015. In her year stint there, she came under suspicion after an unusually high number of infants died on her watch in the intensive care unit. She was later charged with seven counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder of babies in the hospital.
In August 2023, she was sentenced to life in prison. While her initial appeal was rejected, she continued to protest her innocence. But in a retrial in July 2024 she was convicted of attempting to murder another baby.
The evidence: During her trial, test results were presented showing some victims had antibodies consistent with being given high levels of insulin while in her care, and others had skin discoloration in line with air embolisms. Testimonies from colleagues also noted her falsification of patient records and the removal of important nursing handover sheets, and a chart created by the prosecution showed her to be present at 25 suspicious deaths in the hospital in just one year.
However questions have long been swirling over the legitimacy of the evidence used to convict her. In May this year a 13,000-word article was published by the New Yorker, arguing that Letby may be a victim of a huge miscarriage of justice. The article was banned from being published in the UK at the time so as not to jeopardise her retrial.
“Misinterpretation”: Since then, the number of scientists and experts expressing doubts over the solidity of Letby’s conviction has grown. Speaking to The Times last week, one scientist — whose paper was used by the prosecution in the trial in 2023 — suggested his work had been misinterpreted by the court, while others noted the absence of direct forensic evidence as cause for concern.
In the 2023 trial Dr Anna Milan, a biochemist at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, testified that test results showed insulin had been administered to two of the babies Letby was accused of attempting to kill. However, secondary testing on the victims that would have further confirmed this was not conducted as both babies recovered.
Letby was also found guilty of injecting air into the bloodstream of babies. Two scientists testified to this in Letby’s trial, however a third cast doubt over whether the evidence presented definitely indicated air embolisms.
Then there was the now-famous chart that was shown to the jury, listing 25 suspicious deaths between 2015 and 2016 that Letby was present for. However, some have pointed out that the chart didn’t include six other deaths during that period for which Letby was not charged or involved with.
Too many coincidences? Despite the growing numbers of dissenting voices, many remain adamant that Letby is guilty and that the court arrived at the correct verdict. “People talk about Letby being an upstanding member of the community, forgetting that if you are hiding in plain sight, it is essential that you are,” Dr Dewi Evans, an expert in infant abuse that helped convict Letby, told The Times. “You have a baby that is nice and stable and that suddenly changed out of the blue when she was on duty…as Jack Frost [the fictional television detective in A Touch of Frost] once said: ‘I don’t believe in coincidences.’”
“Conspiracy”: Letby’s defence during her trial was that she is the victim of a “conspiracy” by a group of consultants at the Countess of Chester Hospital who are trying to blame her for the rise in babies’ deaths to cover for their own failings. She has always denied harming or killing any babies during her time as a nurse. At her retrial in July, she turned to the court before being escorted out and shouted “I’m innocent”.
Ongoing investigation: Despite mounting concerns from some quarters that Letby’s conviction isn’t backed by direct forensic evidence, prosecutor Nick Johnson KC insisted that “context is everything” in her case. While there is no single piece of evidence that showed Letby to be a killer, he argued that a combination of circumstantial and indirect evidence — including the discovery of handwritten notes saying “I am evil, I did this” — proved beyond all doubt that Letby was responsible for the deaths of seven babies.
Police are continuing to investigate Letby’s career as a nurse, with a further 25 other suspicious incidents linked to her — including another case of insulin poisoning.
Your Post briefing
As the riots have finally abated around the country, Adam Kelwick, the imam who shared a hug with a protester outside the Abdullah Quilliam mosque two Fridays ago has gone one further: opening the doors to the mosque and inviting the protestors in for a tour and to share food. “I’ve learnt a lot tonight, actually,” one of the men who he had invited along said in a short video posted by Kelwick on X. Take a look.
But while Kelwick offers a conciliatory hand across the divide, police are moving swiftly on with their investigations into the riots. They’ve released photos of 12 of the people they want to speak to — you can see the images here. So far, Merseyside Police have charged 22 people in connection to rioting, while 32-year-old Jordan Davies has been jailed for two years after he was caught carrying a knife on his way to join a mob after a vigil for the victims of the Southport stabbings. Meanwhile, a teenager who faces charges for rioting thought he was attending a protest about saving children from paedophiles, according to his mother, who says he got “carried away”.
One of Liverpool’s grandest old buildings could be finding a new use: as a New York-style cocktail bar. The Lyceum is part-empty at the moment (while the part backing onto Liverpool Central station is a crazy golf course, naturally). The building was built between 1800 and 1802 and housed the Liverpool Library and a news room. But as with many of Liverpool’s grand old civic buildings, finding a modern use has been a tricky business. It’s a topic David Lloyd covered for The Post back in March. “However you try to run the numbers, a portfolio of grand civic buildings just doesn’t fit into a shrinking city; and this city has more than its share,” he wrote. Nonetheless, the Grade II listed site is subject to a planning application from Arc Inspirations Ltd, who have worked on listed buildings in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham in the past.
Meanwhile, over on the Wirral there are grand dreams of Stockholm-on-the-Mersey, with the council aiming to emulate the Swedish capital’s Royal Seaport as a blueprint for the planned Birkenhead’s Dock Branch Park. Dock Branch Park, or DBP as no one other than us is calling it, is part of the wider Dock Branch neighbourhood plan which is hoping to deliver about 1,200 new homes in the next five to 15 years. Stockholm’s Royal Seaport, similarly, has an industrial past but has been revamped and should bring in 35,000 jobs by 2030.
Post Picks
💃 If you’re at a loose end this evening, BOXPARK Liverpool are hosting Move Mondays – a salsa class for everyone at every level, from beginner to pro. Come with a partner or on your own. Tickets start at £4.88, and can be purchased here.
⛪ This Thursday, Liverpool Cathedral are offering a chance to view Anish Kapoor’s Monadic Singularity exhibition after hours. Starting at 6.30pm, curator Elisa Nocente will be giving a talk about the artwork, before giving attendees the opportunity to see the work up close and without the crowds, and sample a wine from Welsford Bistro. Tickets cost £18.50 – but hurry, there are limited spaces available.
🌿 On Friday there is an opportunity to attend a walking tour through the heart of Liverpool’s sustainable food scene. Learn about urban farming, explore repurposed land, try your hand at foraging, and enjoy sustainable wine and a locally sourced feast at the various different stops throughout the city – including Squash Nutrition and Ropes and Twine. Tickets cost £55 or £200 for a group of four, and every ticket sale includes a ‘pay it forward’ donation to Squash Nutrition.
🍷 Finally, staying on the wine theme, this Saturday A Grape Pairing will be hosting a fine wine tasting and food pairing at the Royal Institution Bar. The evening consists of an arrival fizz, six Italian wines paired with tasting platters, and a dessert wine paired with tiramisu. Tickets can be purchased here.
Home of the week
Given the weather over the weekend, the last thing you’re probably thinking about at the moment is curling up by a wood-burning stove, but this 3 bed detached house in Woolton Village is just the place for that. If you’re more summer-oriented, the property also has a large and beautiful garden, with two patio seating areas and a garden room. £400,000.
Recommended reads
“I was a little drag child. It was my world”: Read about award-winning photographer Magnus Hastings’ new exhibition – his biggest to date – at Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery. The exhibition celebrates the city’s vibrant drag scene, from comedy queens to gender benders.
This piece in The Guardian explores how the child benefit cap has affected families in Liverpool. “If you’re someone with two children, the government gives the amount of money that they deem is the bare minimum for you to live off. If you’ve got a child over that … the government knows that they’re living in poverty.”
Re the riots: "No doubt we can expect a long period of appraisals and reflection" - we didn't get that last time, after Knowsley. Some parts of the media couldn't shut up about it quick enough, and politicians seemed happy to look the other way.
The Letby case is very disturbing. She was convicted with no direct evidence and no witnesses who had actually seen her harm, or attempt to harm, a baby. One of the key prosecution points was that the death rate dropped when Letby was transferred to desk duties. They failed to mention this exactly corresponded to the time the hospital baby unit was downgraded from acute which would, almost certainly, have resulted in reduction in the death rate anyway.
The hand written notes were written after she was arrested and could well have been her depressed reflections of what she thought everyone was thinking of her.