Lucy Letby latest: Killer’s barrister says anger must be redirected if found innocent

We’ve been running a few parts tonight from our interview with Mark McDonald, who is Lucy Letby’s newly-appointed barrister.

He said he had a meeting with 22 professionals with expertise in forensic pathology, statistics and anesthetics last Sunday.

Asked what they told him, he said: “That the science, the medical evidence that was presented to the jury by the prosecution was unreliable.”

We spoke to Mark McDonald, Lucy Letby’s new barrister, on how he first got involved in the case as it emerged he was leading her fight for an appeal last week.

He said: “I have been involved in these types of cases for the past 15 years, because there are four nurses currently serving life imprisonment for harming patients.

“I represented Ben Geen [one of those convicted nurses] in both the Court of Appeal and and the CCRC, so I have been aware of these issues, so you might think to yourself ‘what has that got to do with Lucy Letby?”

“All four cases are very similar. All four cases mirror each other in the way they were presented to the jury. They present a statistical theory in relation to spikes in deaths and also a particular nurse being on duty.

“I have now statistical reports that say what is taking place, the assertions taking place are wrong.

“Secondly, they rely upon on technical expert evidence to look back in hindsight… let’s take Lucy Letby for example, everything was seen as a natural cause, every death was seen as natural, there were numerous post mortems and all came back as normal deaths, and years later an expert gets into a witness box and says ‘well, I think this is how that person died, there is no direct evidence against her in relation of harming the patients’.

“Same in Ben Geen, and the same in others, and I’m really concerned by the nature of the admissibility of that type of evidence put forward before a jury.

“So as soon as Lucy was charged, I pretty much knew what was going to happen…. I now have numerous medical experts that have looked at evidence put before the jury and raise serious problems with the science used and the realiability of the science used for the jury”

Mark McDonald was announced as Lucy Letby’s new barrister last week.

The barrister has previously been involved in several high-profile appeals, including that of Ben Geen, another nurse jailed for life in 2006 for murdering two of his patients and poisoning 15 others.

Geen’s application to appeal his convictions was denied by the Court of Appeal in 2009 and two further applications to the CCRC, in 2013 and 2015, also refused.

On his profile page at Furnival Chambers, Mr McDonald is described as having “a formidable reputation within criminal law”.

The barrister set up a UK-based group, Amicus, which became a leading charity working on the death penalty in the USA.

He’s also worked in Palestine with the Bar Human Rights Committee and set up the Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.

It was announced last week that Lucy Letby has a new barrister, Mark McDonald, and that he planned to make an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) for Letby’s case to be sent back to the Court of Appeal.

He told the BBC: “I knew almost from the start, following this trial, that there is a strong case that she is innocent The fact is juries get it wrong. And yes, so do the Court of Appeal, history teaches us that.”

Speaking to The Independent tonight, he said Letby’s conviction relied on a range of scientific evidence which he said was now being questioned by senior medical professionals.

Last Sunday, he met up with a number of figures to begin to go over the evidence. Today, he’s been preparing expert reports which he will use as part of his submission to the CCRC.

“If I am right, the convictions are unsafe, then this would be the biggest miscarriage of justice in the history the UK”

The terms of reference for tomorrow’s inquiry are partly based on Lucy Letby’s convictions, with an examination to be done on what was happening at the time of the murders, including the conduct of staff.

We’ve spoken to Letby’s newly-appointed barrister, Mark McDonald, who has said the scope needs to be wider.

Mr McDonald is currently preparing expert documents for an application to the Crimininal Cases Review Commission in a fresh attempt to appeal the killer’s convictions.

He told us: “I would like the terms of reference [for the inquiry] to be extended to look at the issues that we are raising because if we are right, if no crimes actually been committed and the conviction is unsafe, that means that there maybe more systemic problems on the unit that are not going to be investigated because they aren’t covered by the terms of reference.”

Mr McDonald said the terms of reference for the inquiry were “pretty much she has been found guilty, how is allowed to get away with this”.

“The parents of the babies who were murdered or suffered injuries, some life long, live with the consequences every day.

“On top of their grievous loss they endured years of uncertainty about what had caused death or injury.

“And for some, uncertainty remains. All have made it plain to me that they want to do all they can to make sure that no one else suffers as they do. I’ve already mentioned one of the suggestions they have made as to how this may be achieved.

“With the help of the inquiry team and all those who will contribute to the inquiry I will do all I can to make sure that no one else suffers as they have. It is unconscionable that this situation would ever occur again.”

Back in November last year, inquiry chair Lady Justice Thirlwall issued an opening statement in which she set out the objectives of the inquiry. She said: “Our work is in three parts.

“Part A is about the experience at the hospital, and elsewhere, of the parents of the babies named on the indictment,

“Part B considers the conduct of people working at the hospital and how Letby was able repeatedly to kill and harm babies on the neonatal unit,

“Part C will look at the wider NHS, examining relationships between the various groups of professionals, the culture within our hospitals and how these affect the safety of newborns in neonatal units.”

Last month, a group of 24 senior doctors wrote to the health secretary Wes Streeting, calling for the inquiry this week to postponed.

The letter said the natural assumption that the nurse was a murderer could mean important lessons were missed.

“Possible negligent deaths that were presumed to be murders could result in an incomplete investigation of the management response to the crisis,” the letter said.

In particular, concerns were raised over statistics on the number of deaths at the hospital’s neonatal unit, with it claimed that there were six deaths on the unit in the same period when Letby was not present that were not revealed to the jury.

Warwick University’s Prof Jane Hutton told the BBC the way the figures were presented was not in a way it should be.

A spokesperson for the Thirlwall Inquiry said it would go ahead as planned.

Tamlin Bolton, who represents the families of six victims, has described the speculation as “upsetting” for all of her clients.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday, the solicitor said: “The families are devastated by the reporting at the moment. It is the families that are going through this, continuing to go through this in its enormity and sincerity.

“They are the ones still raising children now, who will have to explain to them one day exactly what happened to them as children or their siblings on that unit … If you are going to give an expert opinion on something and hold yourself out as an expert, it’s really important that you have all of the information before you make that declaration or you give that opinion.

“Because anything else outside of that is simply speculation and it would be unfortunate to fall prey to the same trap that you are being critical of when you reference the jury’s decision and the decision of the Court of Appeal.”

Chair Lady Justice Thirlwall

Lady Justice Thirlwall is a senior Court of Appeal judge. On 4 September 2023 she was appointed to chair the inquiry into the events at the Countess of Chester hospital by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

She was the Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales from December 2019 and had significant responsibility for the response of the judiciary to the Covid pandemic.

Counsel to the Inquiry – Rachel Langdale KC

Rachel Langdale KC is Head of Chambers at 7BR, where she specialises in undertaking Children law cases (public, private and international), Judicial Review and Public Inquiry work. She was appointed as a Queen’s Counsel in 2009, a Bencher of the Middle Temple in 2011 and was a member of the Bar Council Ethics Committee for many years, including chairing that Committee between 2017-2020.

Solicitor to the Inquiry – Tim Suter

Tim Suter is a partner at Fieldfisher LLP. He has extensive experience of advising on independent inquiries, investigations and inquests. Tim recently acted as the solicitor to Manchester Arena Inquiry. He has also previously acted as solicitor to the Hillsborough Inquests and Birmingham 1974 pub bombings Inquests and as deputy solicitor to the inquests into the London Bombings of 7 July 2005 and the public inquiry into the death of the Russian dissident, Alexander Litvinenko.