What to expect from Lucy Letby inquiry published today as killer nurse’s lawyer hits back

A PUBLIC inquiry into how Lucy Letby was able to repeatedly kill and harm babies on a hospital neonatal unit is due to be published today.

The Thirlwall Inquiry was launched in 2023 in the wake of the former nurse’s multiple convictions for murder and attempted murder of infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

One of the country’s most senior judges, Lady Justice Thirlwall, heard evidence at Liverpool Town Hall from numerous witnesses between September 2024 and February 2025, including from the parents of Letby’s victims.

The inquiry’s key objectives were to seek answers for the victims’ families and ensure lessons are learned – some 25 years after another nurse, Beverley Allitt, committed similar crimes on a children’s ward in Grantham, Lincolnshire.

Lady Justice Thirlwall noted that an inquiry had also taken place into events surrounding Allitt’s killing spree and said it was “utterly unacceptable” it had happened again within the NHS.

Her investigation did not examine Letby’s convictions or motives but instead focused on the conduct of those working at the Countess of Chester, including the board, managers, doctors and nurses from when Letby started her employment in 2012.

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“The Government needs to pause and not waste any further money until the Court of Appeal has had chance to see the substantial international expert evidence which definitely proves Lucy Letby is innocent.”

Letby, 36, was moved from the neonatal unit to administrative duties in July 2016 after consultants expressed concerns about her to the hospital’s executive team.

Hospital bosses opted to carry out a number of reviews into the increased mortality in 2015 and 2016, and did not invite Cheshire Constabulary to investigate until May 2017, as Letby remained on site until her arrest more than a year later.

The inquiry examined whether suspicions should have been raised earlier and whether the police and other external bodies should have been informed sooner.

It looked at the response to concerns about Letby and whether the culture, management and governance structures and processes of the hospital trust, and the wider NHS, contributed to the failure to protect babies from Letby.

The inquiry also heard evidence about whether the accountability of senior managers should be strengthened.

Sir Robert Francis, who chaired the inquiry into chronic care failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, told Lady Justice Thirlwall there was no regulator “with teeth” to impose sanctions on poorly performing non-clinical directors.

Letby, from Hereford, who maintains her innocence, is serving 15 whole-life terms for the murders of seven babies and attempted murders of seven others by various means between June 2015 and June 2016.

The charges Letby was convicted on in full

Child A, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby injected air intravenously into the bloodstream of the baby boy. COUNT 1 GUILTY.

Child B, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby attempted to murder the baby girl, the twin sister of Child A, by injecting air into her bloodstream. COUNT 2 GUILTY.

Child C, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said Letby forced air down a feeding tube and into the stomach of the baby boy. COUNT 3 GUILTY.

Child D, allegation of murder. The Crown said air was injected intravenously into the baby girl. COUNT 4 GUILTY.

Child E, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby murdered the twin baby boy with an injection of air into the bloodstream and also deliberately caused bleeding to the infant. COUNT 5 GUILTY.

Child F, allegation of attempted murder. Letby was said by prosecutors to have poisoned the twin brother of Child E with insulin. COUNT 6 GUILTY.

Child G, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby targeted the baby girl by overfeeding her with milk and pushing air down her feeding tube. COUNT 7 GUILTY, COUNT 8 GUILTY, COUNT 9 NOT GUILTY.

Child H, two allegations of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby sabotaged the care of the baby girl in some way which led to two profound oxygen desaturations. COUNT 10 NOT GUILTY, COUNT 11 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.

Child I, allegation of murder. The prosecution said Letby killed the baby girl at the fourth attempt and had given her air and overfed her with milk. COUNT 12 GUILTY.

Child J, allegation of attempted murder. No specific form of harm was identified by the prosecution but they said Letby did something to cause the collapse of the baby girl. COUNT 13 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.

Child K, allegation of attempted murder. The prosecution said Letby compromised the baby girl as she deliberately dislodged a breathing tube. COUNT 14 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.

Child L, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said the nurse poisoned the twin baby boy with insulin. COUNT 15 GUILTY.

Child M, allegation of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby injected air into the bloodstream of Child L’s twin brother. COUNT 16 GUILTY.

Child N, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby inflicted trauma in the baby boy’s throat and also injected him with air in the bloodstream. COUNT 17 GUILTY, COUNT 18 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT, COUNT 19 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.

Child O, allegation of murder. Prosecutors say Letby attacked the triplet boy by injecting him with air, overfeeding him with milk and inflicting trauma to his liver with “severe force”. COUNT 20 GUILTY.

Child P, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said the nurse targeted the triplet brother of Child O by overfeeding him with milk, injecting air and dislodging his breathing tube. COUNT 21 GUILTY.

Child Q, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby injected the baby boy with liquid, and possibly air, down his feeding tube. COUNT 22 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.

She was twice denied permission to appeal against her convictions in 2024.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, is considering evidence presented on her behalf by an international panel of medics who claim poor medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the babies collapsing.

A number of doctors, scientists and statisticians have publicly challenged the way the evidence was presented to jurors at her trial.

Last year, Lady Justice Thirlwall rejected separate applications from Letby and the Countess of Chester’s former senior management team to pause her inquiry pending the outcome of Letby’s bid to clear her name.

Solicitors representing Letby wrote to her with concerns that the final report would “not only be redundant but likely unreliable”, and if the convictions were overturned, would be “based on the wrong premise”.

Lawyers for the management team in 2015 and 2016 said there was a “real possibility” the convictions would be overturned.

However, legal teams for the families of Letby’s victims said it was yet another “cynical attempt” by the former nurse to control the narrative and that the executives wanted to avoid criticism.

They added there was “nothing remarkable or new” about the evidence presented by the international panel of medics.

Richard Scorer, head of abuse law and public inquiries at Slater and Gordon and lawyer for three of the families of Letby’s victims, told Times Radio on Tuesday that the hospital system had “very badly let down” parents and families.

“In addition to that, there’s the whole issue of the duty of candour, and the failure of the hospital to be candid with parents about what was really going on, which went on over a very long period of months and years,” he said.

Mr Scorer added he felt it was “inevitable” there would be culpability attributed to both individuals involved in the hospital’s response and the hospital as an institution.

“What we’ve got to ensure is that these kinds of mistakes are not repeated in future cases if they should happen,” he said.

“That means ensuring that there are mandatory procedures that have to be followed in this kind of situation and that there is a much-strengthened duty of candour within the NHS.”

A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children involved in the case.