Is Lucy Letby conviction ‘in jeopardy’ due to ‘wrong’ prosecution expert?
Concerns over expert evidence provided during the trials of convicted baby killer Lucy Letby have led to some doubts over the safety of her conviction, a leading specialist has claimed.
Fiona Morrison, Director and Co-founder of TLA Medicolegal, an independent provider of personal injury and clinical negligence expert medical reports, believes retired paediatrician Dr Dewi Evans, the leading expert for the prosecution in the case, was not adequately practiced.
As a result, despite Letby being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven others under her care as a nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016, controversy continues to rage over the case.
Last year a BBC Panorama investigation highlighted doubts about the evidence used to convict Letby while experts in statistics, forensic science and neonatology have written to the Government pointing out what they describe as worrying anomalies in the evidence.
Fiona believes the ongoing debate over whether Letby is indeed one of Britain’s worst serial killers or actually innocent is at least partially due to the lack of expert testimony at her original trial.
She said: “It is critical to ask an expert if they have a high level of experience in that field of medicine, and for the expert to demonstrate this. A neonatologist should have been the lead medical expert alongside a paediatrician.”
Fiona believes the prosecution in the Letby case failed to ask the right questions when recruiting the lead expert. She said: “A series of questions should have been asked to ascertain if this expert has adequate experience and qualifications in that area and the experts would need to demonstrate this.
“There is guidance on what experience experts need, but it's also down to the legal team to scrutinise that expert's career before electing them and the barristers particularly should be challenging the expert’s clinical expertise on a case like that.”
Other questions should include whether the expert is up to date with current research and if they were practicing medicine in this field at the time of the index event.
So far Letby’s attempts to appeal have been rejected but her legal team plan to take her case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission to apply for it to be sent back to the Court of Appeal. As a result, the ongoing debate continues causing more distress for the families of the children involved.
TLA Medicolegal is the only firm offering lawyers and insurers direct access to thousands of internationally renowned medical experts in the UK both in the NHS and private practice. All of its experts are exceptional in their chosen fields and renowned internationally for their expertise, training and research. TLA Medicolegal case managers identify only the best medical experts in their field of medicine and only match the right expert to the right job.
Fiona added: “I would like to have seen neonatologist provide evidence as the lead expert in this case alongside other relevant experts. Not having the right expert in place can put the whole case in jeopardy, this is never more pertinent than in a high-profile case like this particularly as it involves babies.”