Andrew L. Urban,
In just under 80 minutes, the audio version of the New Yorker’s investigative piece about the Lucy Letby case provides a thorough expose of the hysterical miscarriage of justice that an entire legal system has managed. You can read it in full, too.
It’s a thorough and compelling piece of investigative journalism by Rachel Aviv. The article provides the fuller context – and remember, truth is context. There is also a remarkable echo of Kathleen Folbigg’s ‘confessional’ diaries, now dismissed as evidence against her. Letby’s version is a collection of handwritten notes.
It seems to me that the investigations by dedicated journalists in several cases is more thorough than police investigations. Unfortunately, the police investigations lead to court and can lead to wrongful convictions with loss of confidence in the legal system – the journalists’ investigations come too late.
Lucy Letby
Excerpt:
“The case against her gathered force on the basis of a single diagram shared by the police, which circulated widely in the media. On the vertical axis were twenty-four “suspicious events,” which included the deaths of the seven newborns and seventeen other instances of babies suddenly deteriorating. On the horizontal axis were the names of thirty-eight nurses who had worked on the unit during that time, with X’s next to each suspicious event that occurred when they were on shift. Letby was the only nurse with an uninterrupted line of X’s below her name. She was the “one common denominator,” the “constant malevolent presence when things took a turn for the worse,” one of the prosecutors, Nick Johnson, told the jury in his opening statement. “If you look at the table overall the picture is, we suggest, self-evidently obvious. It’s a process of elimination.”
But, we suggest, this is also a self-evidently obvious failure of investigation. A combination of tunnel vision, scientific incompetence, lack of imagination, rejection of common sense and egregious failure of the law.
Are Sir Robin Spencer and/or Goss and/or Thirwall and/or Dewi Evans mixed up with malicious prosecution of Lucy Letby ?
I don’t know but Peter Gill might …
The BBC’s summary four weeks ago https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgwx9xprwqo?fbclid=IwY2xjawGn_Y1leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHTxp8H5zfplUV61hKdVRYpXE0SEKyOpGS1fXZHG_PUiD4lK3pKozBJn-LQ_aem_vF-S5RRNcRhbjEJaYUN7Ag
is a reasonable update of where things stand.
Lady Thirwall is heading an inquiry which assumes that Lucy is guilty. She is bound by the frames of reference (or assumptions) for her inquiry. Enough said. Let’s move on.
Dewi Evans is still regarded in official circles as a hero who pursued a guilty murderer. Here’s a 50 minute interview Dewi did a year ago, not long after the guilty verdict: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzhuN3OprGo. He sounds so plausible that virtually very listener falls for what he says, but if you know the real details of the case, there’s a string of errors in what he says in that interview, eg he states with certainty that babies don’t just die without a reason. We all that’s patently false, otherwise SIDS and SUDI would not exist, yet most listeners believe him when he says that. Because he sounds so nice.
Sir Robin Spencer was the prosecutor behind the wrongful conviction of Sally Clark, and much more recently was the first judge to reject Lucy Letby’s application for leave to appeal the convictions resulting from her original trial.
Neither career lowlight is mentioned in the Ministry of Justice’s press release a month ago about Sir Robin’s fresh appointment as Independent Assessor of Compensation for Miscarriages of Justice: https://gov.uk/government/news/independent-assessor-of-compensation-for-miscarriages-of-justice-reappointed.
I personally think that the prosecution of Lucy was more misguided than malicious. The Post Office scandal shows how hard it seems to be in England right now to achieve justice. The good lawyer Mark McDonald plans to get England’s underfunded and overworked CCRC onto Lucy’s case – goodness knows how long – years? decades? – it will be before the authorities admit any error in Lucy’s endless case.
Goss was Lucy’s judge. I don’t know of any criticism of him.
Not a Lucy – a Patsy ? One should never think – even for one minute- the British Justice System necessarily delivers justice –
or even is obliged to ! Totally innocent man going to work in London – shot more than 6 times in the face by a gun happy police hero . What’s even more amusing is the response from the heroic police gruppenfuhrers. “He didn’t have a ticket”. How could one not- but scream with laughter? Just as when informed by the Queensland Police Black Shirt Gun Slingers (and dont forget the $30 million Palm Island ludicrous action against little children in their beds) dear leader (Obbergruppenfuhrer ?) “Stacy Train was lying on the ground wounded – firing at the Police Gunship”. The police helicopter observer said clearly ” the female is unarmed and crawling for cover .(from the blazing guns of our heroes). Maybe Tracy didn’t have a ticket either ? The more one reads of the Lucy Letby sad circumstance – the more one becomes doubtful about the whole seemingly concocted story – some nagging doubt ? Sure is ! Will Lucy get justice from the judge types – Not bloody likely! Appeals Courts are notorious for their moronic decisions – one example- Our lovely Grandma Sue – another example – Ray Bailey- dangling on the proud South Australian Government rope- apology for his family ? (from the swine) That would only come from a decent justice system – Not from the system that went after Lucy Letby ! (and they didn’t even need a Manock – they got their own lying, cheating, flexible forensics and jury fooling mendacity . One consoling thought abour our judge system- dam- can’t think of one ? Most of them will be dead before me- my gulag prison food- their judges fat faced gordon blue restaurant tucker .
From The Guardian (12Jun2024):
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jun/12/lucy-letby-convictions-constitute-significant-evidence-prosecutors-say
Garry – The Guardian corrected that incorrect info
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/16/evidence-in-first-lucy-letby-trial-was-incorrect-cps-admits.
So there was another nurse present, not Lucy. And didn’t the infamous Dr Jayaram say he saw one nurse (not two nurses) over Baby K? By the way, the non-Lucy nurse should not be a suspect, because these baby deaths are not murders.
You also quoted: ”The reason the alarms didn’t sound was because somebody had disabled them,” he told the jury.”
The prosecutor told the jury that speculation, without obtaining any of the data about the alarms being re-enabled or the like. Just like in Tasmania, who needs evidence when unproven speculation can be used instead?
Has the leave to appeal application been given a hearing date?
No. Permission denied May 24, 2024
Here are some links for further info:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9773l3qzl4o
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-67488797
I fear this case will end up as scandalous as the UK post office saga.
Her first appeal to one judge lost. Her second appeal to three judges lost last month. Those outcomes were widely expected. The CCRC will obviously get involved, with Mark McDonald likely to be involved in the long legal process of rectifying this one, in my opinion.
This 16 minute video about the case is interesting https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ceri-e-morrice_lucy-letby-the-other-15-infantsabdridged-activity-7201930327840215041-SI2W
I’ve just been informed the CCRC has not received an application from her. Perhaps it’s coming.
Thanks Peter; taken together with the New Yorker report, this Ceri Morrice clip confirms my strongly held belief that Lucy Letby’s guilt is not beyond reasonbale doubt.
It just is INJUSTICE !