An expert witness who was not called by Lucy Letby’s defence team said he is “concerned” about not being able to give evidence and believes his involvement could have led to a different outcome.
Neonatologist Dr Michael Hall said he had struggled “for some time” with the nurse’s case and “did not feel the jury had heard the whole truth”.
Although Letby’s defence lawyers hired Dr Hall as an expert witness, he was not called to testify at Manchester Crown Court.
In two trials, Letby, 34, was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
She was given a life sentence for her crimes, meaning she will never be released from prison, but some have raised questions about the evidence presented to the initial jury.
Neonatologist Dr. Michael Hall said he has struggled “for some time” with the Lucy Lety case and “did not feel that the jury had heard the whole truth.”
Although Letby’s defence lawyers hired Dr Hall as an expert witness, he was not called to testify at Manchester Crown Court.
Dr Hall said he would have questioned some of the prosecution’s claims, saying The times:’He would have given different answers to those given by the medical experts of the Prosecutor’s Office and different interpretations for some of the cases.
“That’s not to say I know all the answers or that I know Lucy Letby is innocent. There were certainly some facts that were difficult to explain.”
The doctor said he believed expert witnesses called by the prosecution “exaggerated the extent to which some of the babies were ‘completely stable’ before they collapsed.”
He suggested that the evidence supporting the prosecution’s claim that some of the young victims were injected with air was relatively weak.
Dr Hall also insisted that most of the evidence was “circumstantial” and there was “little forensic evidence” to support the prosecution’s case.
The neonatologist said he does not know why he was not called by the defense despite being one of its expert witnesses.
Attorney Mark Solon, who runs a training company that teaches expert witnesses how to work within the legal system, said there were several potential reasons.
One possible explanation is that the defense may have thought that Dr. Hall would not have performed well under cross-examination, perhaps because he would not have fully supported Letby’s innocence, or may have thought that he had already made his case.
A photo showing Letby during a night out that she shared on her social media.
Letby, who worked at the Countess of Cheshire Hospital, gave evidence in court
Letby is Britain’s most prolific baby killer in modern times, having killed seven babies and attempted to kill seven others between June 2015 and June 2016.
She is still being investigated by Cheshire Police for other possible crimes against babies even earlier in her nursing career.
Officers are currently reviewing the medical records of 4,000 babies at two hospitals where Letby worked between 2012 and 2016: the Countess of Chester and Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
In August 2023, Letby refused to leave a holding cell to hear him impose no fewer than 14 life sentences.
Last month, Letby was found guilty of Attempted murder of a premature baby girl known as Baby K after the jury failed to reach a verdict in the original trial. She was subsequently sentenced to a fifteenth life sentence for the crime.
The prosecution described the baby, born at 25 weeks gestation and weighing just 692 grams, as “the epitome of fragility.”
About 90 minutes after she was born, Letby’s breathing tube, through which she was ventilated with air and oxygen, came loose.
Letby was caught “virtually red-handed” attempting to murder Baby K by senior consultant at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit, Dr Ravi Jayaram, in the early hours of 17 February 2016.
Judge Justice Goss KC told Letby: “This was another shocking act of calculated and ruthless cruelty.”
Body camera footage released by Cheshire Police shows Letby’s arrest
The neonatal ward at the Countess of Chester Hospital where Letby worked
He said she had “betrayed the trust of Baby K, her parents and everyone at the hospital.”
“You have coldly denied responsibility. You have shown no remorse. There are no mitigating factors,” he added.
Baby K’s mother said in a victim impact statement: ‘Baby K is not here, he never will be, we will never have what would give us peace, closure or a feeling of being a complete family unit.
‘However, you, Lucy Letby, will never hurt another child nor have the privilege and joy that children give.’
The killer’s repeated denials have helped spark a wave of conspiracy theories among those convinced of his innocence. At times during the retrial, Letby’s supporters queued to enter both Court 7 and the annex to Court 16.