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.
Michael Mullins
Letby case ‘has echoes’ of wrongly accused Canadian nurse, says expert
Eminent neonatologist says ‘same flawed statistical methodology’ that led to wrongful accusation of nurse Susan Nelles used in Letby case
Sarah Knapton
Science Editor
Sarah Knapton
Related Topics
Lucy Letby, Crime, Hospitals, Canada
11 July 2024 8:01pm BST
619
Susan Nelles’ case was later thrown out before it reached trial and the nurse awarded an out-of-court settlement of $190,000 after bringing a case of malicious prosecution
Susan Nelles’ case was later thrown out before it reached trial and the nurse awarded an out-of-court settlement of $190,000 after bringing a case of malicious prosecution Credit: Ron Bull
The Lucy Letby case bears striking similarities to a Canadian nurse wrongly accused of poisoning babies, an eminent neonatologist has said.
Michael Mullins
I just noticed that Viviane says “The jury was then asked to return guilty verdicts by a judge”. (Viviane, May 15, 2024 at 7:26 pm, on the web pages Our Jury System is a Sausage Factory – Mephitis)
I knew that the judge can throw out a case, can direct the jury to return a “Not Guilty” verdict.
I didn’t know that the judge can ask the jury to return guilty verdicts.
Does anyone know of a case where the jury was asked to return guilty verdicts by the judge ?
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?
From a Guardian article …14Nov2024 reporting on Jayaram at the Thirwall Inquiry
[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/13/consultant-tells-inquiry-he-wishes-he-had-voiced-concerns-about-lucy-letby-sooner]
Peter Gill: (in your comment: November 18, 2024 at 11:53 pm) why did you describe Dr Jayaram as “infamous”?
Garry – You created an excellent timeline about Sue Neill Fraser’s case.
Here’s a timeline for Lucy’s case
https://gill1109.com/2023/10/12/the-timeline-of-the-conspiracy/
Personally, I think “conspiracy” is the wrong word. Like Sue’s case, it’s more like misguided, speculative suspicion by people who like to blame a particular person.
Comparing that timeline to the 50 minute interview linked to my comment (above) produces some discrepancies about who noticed what when.
In both Sue’s and Lucy’s cases, the speculation that it’s murder by the accused does not stand up to scrutiny, in so many ways.
More links about Ravi Jayaram:
(1; https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FULnQoJ-a26brK6wH5U7ELjqF8n7qVBMwEGIjCm1VAk/edit?tab=t.0.
(2)https://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/national/24721736.courage-letby-concerns-consultant-tells-inquiry/
Dr Jayaram said to the Thirlwall inquiry on 14 Nov 2024: : “There has been a lot of speculation but I didn’t walk in and see anything. What I walked in and saw was a baby clearly deteriorating and when I went to assess Baby K the ET (endotracheal tube) was dislodged.”
“My priority was to resuscitate Baby K, which I did successfully.”
———
Infamous.
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 !