Lucy Letby found Guilty

But is this the last word in the matter?

Following on from our previous post here

The jury is back and the verdict is in. We can now report that on August 8 the jury returned partial verdicts of guilt on two counts of attempted murder. On August 11 they returned guilty verdicts on six more counts - the murder of four babies and attempted murder of two others. Two days ago, on August 16, they judged her guilty of three additional counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. At that time they also acquited her of one count of attempted murder. Letby was not present today when the jury informed the court that they could not reach agreement on the remaining six counts of attempted murder.

For those keeping score, the jury returned guilty verdicts on:

• 7 counts of murder

• 7 counts of attempted murder*

They acquited her on:

• 1 count of attempted murder

Leaving:

• 6 counts undecided

What now?

While celebrating their victory and using it as the basis to make disparaging remarks regarding Ms Letby, prosecutors and police have now pledged to investigate the records of up to 4000 infants who passed through the Countess of Chester Hospital (CoCH) during the time Lucy was working there.

I in no way mean to belittle the experiences of parents involved in this case, but in the constant chest-beating, polemic attacks and emotional pleading many questions have gone unanswered. These questions include:

Why is it police have focused only on the 1/3rd of infants who died at CoCH during 2015/16 that they could, in some cases only quite tenuously, link to the sometimes inconsistently reported presence of Lucy Letby?

Where are the investigations of the other 2/3rds of neonates that died on the neonatal unit at CoCH and who doctors and police admit, did so in sometimes very similar circumstances and even in the months after Letby was removed from clinical practice?

Why was the hospital building so quickly scheduled for a complete refit and remodel, and then so rapidly moved along for complete destruction and replacement?

Why is it similar unexplained deaths continued in the months after Letby was removed from clinical practice and no longer had access to the unit?

Why is it these excess deaths only stopped after the aged consultant, Dr Gibbs, had retired and was replaced? What relationship does the fact that he was ‘one foot out the door’ for most of the period have to the entire collection of neonates who died in the unit?

Is it possible, as I have previously demonstrated, that there are other causes for these neonates deaths that remain hitherto unexplored?

Was the building’s destruction intended, as I have previously intimated, to destroy any and all evidence that the ongoing plumbing issues had resulted in colonisation of hospital wastewater (HWW) pathogens that are common causes of neonatal death in such units?

Over the next few weeks I will resume my exploration of the evidence. However, until like-minded people band together, identify and provide appeal-experienced legal support and begin the process of unravelling what I for one believe to be a gross miscarriage of justice…

We will never know the true answers to any of these questions.

The next post in my series on the Lucy Letby case can be found here.

*Note: Initial counts from the judge’s transcript and early media reports suggested guilty verdicts for 7 attempted murder charges - later media reports have said 6.