Lucy Letby – latest: Nurse did not murder any babies, medical experts claim

Dr Shoo Lee is a Canadian professor who co-authored a 1989 academic paper on air embolism in babies.

The work featured prominently at Letby’s 10-month trial and was used by the prosecution to highlight a variety of skin discolorations observed in babies.

But Dr Lee says his paper was misinterpreted by the prosecution and jury members could have been misled.

He was first contacted about Letby’s case in relation to the first appeal last year.

He is now leading the team of 14 international medical experts, which on Tuesday gave alternative causes of death in several of the cases against Letby.

As we’ve reported, an application has been submitted to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to review the Lucy Letby case.

The commission looks into criminal cases where people believe they have been wrongly convicted or wrongly sentenced.

If members find something wrong with a conviction or sentence, they can send the case to the Court of Appeal.

On the application lodged by Letby’s lawyer yesterday, the CCRC issued a statement, just minutes before this morning’s press conference.

It read: “We have received a preliminary application in relation to Ms Letby’s case, and work has begun to assess the application. We anticipate further submissions being made to us.

“It is not for the CCRC to determine innocence or guilt in a case, that’s a matter for the courts.

“It is for the CCRC to find, investigate and if appropriate, refer potential miscarriages of justice to the appellate courts when new evidence or new argument means there is a real possibility that a conviction will not be upheld, or a sentence reduced.

“At this stage it is not possible to determine how long it will take to review this application. A significant volume of complicated evidence was presented to the court in Ms Letby’s trials.

Lucy Letby is serving 15 whole life prison sentences after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others.

Last year, she lost two bids last year to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal.

The first bid in May was over seven murders and seven attempted murders, and in October for the attempted murder of a baby girl which she was convicted of by a different jury at a retrial.

Dr Shoo Lee gave evidence as part of the first application, but this was rejected as three senior judges.

They concluded there had been no prosecution expert evidence diagnosing air embolus solely on the basis of skin discolouration.

Now, Letby’s lawyers have lodged a request to the Criminal Cases Review Commission to investigate her case as a potential miscarriage of justice.

The body will assess if the new evidence gives a reasonable chance of a conviction being overturned – and the case could be referred to the Court of Appeal.

Dr Shoo Lee, who is leading the international panel of experts, issued two messages to the families of those impacted in the case.

He said: “We understand their stress and their anguish, and our work is not meant to cause more distress.

“Rather, it is meant to give them comfort and assurance in knowing the truth about what really happened.

“We know that they want to know the truth and that is why we are here to tell the truth.

“Should they have any queries or concerns, we’d be pleased to discuss them with them.”

We’ve put together an explainer on who is on the panel of international experts, what is their evidence, and what happens now.

You can read it here:

Following Lucy Letby’s final conviction last year, a number of actions have been taking place.

Today, we heard how an application has been lodged with the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, for the Letby case to be reviewed that is taking place.

A public inquiry into how the nurse committed her crimes is also under way, and detectives from Cheshire Constabulary are continuing their review of the care of some 4,000 babies admitted to hospital while Letby worked as a neonatal nurse.

Mark McDonald, the barrister leading Lucy Letby’s legal team has described Tuesday’s presentation as a “gamechanger”.

Asked what he thought of the press conference, Mr McDonald said: “I’ve never known anything like it.

“You know, never before – and I mean it’s a grand statement to make – but never before have we had such an experienced credible body of experts come together across the world and say something has gone wrong, and I think it’s a gamechanger.”

Mr McDonald said he would like to see the matter “certainly referred to the Court of Appeal by the summer”.

Dr Shoo Lee said he took on the Lucy Letby investigation because he “could not see how we could send an innocent woman to jail for the rest of her life if in fact she was innocent”.

Speaking after the press conference, he said that he was first contacted about the case in relation to an appeal by the convicted child killer and, after looking at transcripts, he became “concerned that there was a problem with this conviction because the evidence that’s being used to convict her – regardless of whether she is innocent or guilty – was wrong”.

He later added: “It is about a young woman’s life. All of us, our lives are precious. I could not see how we could send an innocent woman to jail for the rest of her life if in fact she was innocent.

“So I decided to investigate and that’s when I approached the solicitors to say I would be willing to look at the evidence to see whether or not there was a problem with the evidence.

“This is no longer just one physician standing up to say Lucy Letby was wrongly accused, this is the panel of 14 of the world’s top experts.

“If you don’t believe them who will you believe?”

Downing Street declined to comment on an application by convicted child serial killer Lucy Letby to have her case reviewed.

Asked whether Sir Keir Starmer thought she was guilty, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “This was a truly horrendous case that shocked the nation. A criminal trial has taken place and Lucy Letby was found guilty.

“There is, of course, an established process through the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which is independent of Government, and the commission has today confirmed they have received an application from Ms Letby’s legal team.

“We wouldn’t get drawn on that independent process.”

Despite the bombshell press conference, where a panel of leading neonatologists said they believe all Letby’s victims died of natural causes or bad medical care, Letby is still a convicted child murderer.

Having been sentenced to 15 whole life orders, she will never be released unless her bid to overturn her convictions succeeds.

The panel’s findings will now be passed to the Criminal Cases Review Commission who must decide if the new evidence merits the case being referred to the Court of Appeal.

But with a lengthy backlog, it could take years for them to investigate her case and there is no guarantee they will agree with her lawyer’s assessment that the evidence against her has been “demolished”.

If the CCRC application succeeds, it will then be up to judges at the Court of Appeal to review her conviction.