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I went down the rabbit hole on this a couple of months ago. Some of the details are a bit hazy in my memory now as it was about 2 months ago, but in the interes
by ssl232 3y ago
I went down the rabbit hole on this a couple of months ago. Some of the details are a bit hazy in my memory now as it was about 2 months ago, but in the interest of playing devil's advocate...
> the suspicious deaths all lined up perfectly with Lucy Letby's shifts
Once a nurse has been around the ward for long enough to have seen several deaths, you can produce a table showing a set of baby deaths correlating to any nurse's shifts [1]. The ward was for seriously ill newborn babies, so baby deaths were unfortunately common, and each nurse would regularly be on shifts where one would die.
As you say, these deaths were considered "suspicious", but some (e.g. [2]) claim otherwise, saying key tests that would rule the accused method of murder in or out were not done at the time of death.
> she was often caught interacting with those babies when she had been instructed not to
(Again, playing devil's advocate) the job selects for nurses who (apart from Letby, it seems) deeply care for young babies. Not a smoking gun.
> when she was taken off the ward the deaths instantly stopped
This has been contested. As far I can tell the hospital's death rate statistics disagree with the Office for National Statistics. The latter's data appears to show the deaths peaked after Letby was taken off the ward [3] (note, I haven't checked the underlying source mentioned in the tweet).
Replies to some comments below yours:
> And she took home documents from several of those patients, which she'd have no ordinary reason to have fished out of the trash.
Apparently this is quite common for nurses working on this and other intensive care wards. Nurses just off duty are often phoned by the nurses who took over the shift, asking for details on particular babies' treatment or behaviours that day. Having files on the babies to hand would let Letby give exact details without having to remember or misremember them.
> And the little old thing that she wrote "I killed them on purpose" on a post-it-note at her house.
This looks bad, yes, but again not a smoking gun. I think I read this happened after she was already taken off the ward or had somehow found out she was under investigation for causing baby deaths. I could believe a note like that could be written by someone on the verge of a breakdown or under extreme stress. The "I killed them" bit I could believe someone could write if they regret not having spotted something earlier that someone more experienced might have, especially if they have imposter syndrome.
As the blog makes clear, it's not really about whether Letby is innocent or guilty, it's about whether she got a fair trial. It seems many statistics were misused in her case, circumstantial evidence was used as smoking guns, and some evidence was not fully addressed [4]; basically enough to question the verdict.
[1] https://twitter.com/profnfenton/status/1692837686166368660 https://twitter.com/profnfenton/status/1692837686166368660
[2] https://gill1109.com/2023/05/24/the-lucy-letby-case/ https://gill1109.com/2023/05/24/the-lucy-letby-case/
[3] https://twitter.com/LawHealthTech/status/1692917506078376019 https://twitter.com/LawHealthTech/status/1692917506078376019
[4] Apparently during the trial it was mentioned that sewage pipes crossed the ceiling and backflow sometimes came into the sinks. Definitely not a good mix to have in a ward with very ill babies. Hopefully infection spread from bad plumbing was fully ruled out as causes of death during the trial. Some critics don't seem to think it was.
- weinzierl 3y agoI'd like to add another point that struck me as odd when going down the same rabbit hole: The C-peptide level in Child F's discharge letter have been called "the golden thread" of the case by the leading Detective Sergeant of the investigation Paul Hughes. The deputy senior investigating officer DCI Nicola Evans called it a "real milestone" in the investigation. The Guardian called it "a smoking gun in this medically complex case". Dr Stephen Breary, the hospital's neonatal unit head consultant, said about its discovery: "If there was a iota of doubt, it was removed then." I think it is fair to say that if this letter would not have been found, after already a year of rather fruitless investigation, there would quite likely not have been a case. Yet, the very same Dr Breary, who was also under pressure because of the apparent rise of deaths in his department, came up with this document more than two and a half years after the child was released and just a couple of days before Letby was about to return to his department against his will. I'm not saying Dr Breary is under suspicion or Letby is innocent, but think the discharge letter should have seen more scrutiny. My point is that I don't think there is anything in this case that really holds water if you seriously probe it and if you pile up flawed arguments - no matter how many - it will not bring you any closer to the truth. If I can wagger a prediction, and I already said this when Letby was convicted: I see a successful appeal and this verdict be shredded. Not because I think Letby is innocent, but because a working legal system should not put anyone behind bars for life with such a weak case.
- notahacker 3y agoApart from the general ridiculousness of insinuating that of all records someone might adulterate or invent, he would pick a digital copy of a discharge letter sent to an third party whose other baby had died, your timelines are all wrong. Breary got the police involved in April 2017. Nobody thinks it's a coincidence that it was a few days before Letby was due to return to the ward; stopping her from returning to the ward was his stated reason for going to the police. The "smoking gun" turned up inconveniently late, in February of the following year, when he'd been asked to go through the records of the kids who survived.
- weinzierl 3y ago