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Lucy Letby: Have you changed your mind?

1000 replies

Kittybythelighthouse · 12/08/2025 12:54

The other thread has had a lot of really interesting discussion but we are running out of pages so here’s a new one for those who are interested in continuing the conversation.

Whether you’re sure she’s guilty, sure she isn’t, or are somewhere in between, I’m interested in hearing how your opinion has evolved (or hasn’t!) since you first heard about the case,

Please try to be respectful - this is a heated topic. Its a matter of huge public interest with a lot of strong opinions, but we are all adults and can disagree with each other in a respectful manner.

Old thread is here (the poll still has a few days left):
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5388914-lucy-letby-have-you-changed-your-mind?page=38&reply=146359313

Page 38 | Lucy Letby: have you changed your mind? | Mumsnet

I’ve been sensing a shift in opinions on the Lucy Letby case and I’m interested in hearing from people who have changed their mind either way. Did y...

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5388914-lucy-letby-have-you-changed-your-mind?page=38&reply=146359313

OP posts:
Thread gallery
31
Typicalwave · 17/08/2025 16:12

rubbishatballet · 17/08/2025 15:43

I don’t read this judgment as being particularly critical of Dewi Evans, more of the questions that were asked of him and the other medical expert witness.

In the context of this discussion though, I did think this statement was pertinent - particularly as some posters have been so insistent that the medical evidence (and therefore the opinions of the expert panel) is absolutely all that matters in determining whether deliberate harm was caused to any of the babies.

And Evans hasn't learned from it, it would seem.

Typicalwave · 17/08/2025 16:16

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 16:02

I really don't understand the police decision to allow Brearey at Chester and his colleague at Liverpool to investigate and report on incidents on the wards they managed.

Did they not understand that some failings at ward level were at least a possible contributor to collapses and deaths? How could they not see the blatant conflict of interest?

It’s conflict of interest on stilts, and while I’ve never worked for the police, surely it’s the police’s job to go in there, pull the records, start interviewing and conducting their own investigation isn’t it?

Viviennemary · 17/08/2025 16:24

Typicalwave · 17/08/2025 16:16

It’s conflict of interest on stilts, and while I’ve never worked for the police, surely it’s the police’s job to go in there, pull the records, start interviewing and conducting their own investigation isn’t it?

That's how I thought it would work.

rubbishatballet · 17/08/2025 16:30

Typicalwave · 17/08/2025 16:12

And Evans hasn't learned from it, it would seem.

Learned from what? That he and the other medical expert witness were asked inappropriate questions that the judgment makes clear they were both reluctant to answer?

SeriousFaffing · 17/08/2025 16:31

I see you’re on 30 pages long of guilty, not guilty, she’s innocent, but no we don’t mean she’s innocent, we’re saying not guilty. Probably worth posting this on your new thread too.

Text below from the following link: https://www.spectator.com.au/2025/08/the-case-for-letbys-innocence-looks-weaker-than-ever/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR71ZnZ_ZLDSZIvrBL9MuJdZe6JvdNo3J6b2dZmdFCST4Up9C2fUii1mrqPaKA_aem_1nfg3_dieR3vkHauPV6OUw

‘The annual Panorama documentary on Lucy Letby appeared on BBC 1 this week, barely a week after a more one-sided pro-Letby documentary was shown on ITV. Channel 4 has a Letby show in the works and Channel 5 has already broadcast two.

Fortunately, there is plenty of material for producers to get their teeth into. Not only did her trial last ten months but there was a retrial after that, plus two appeal attempts, and her supporters have been making new claims on any almost weekly basis ever since.
Hundreds of pieces of evidence could be cited, almost all of it circumstantial but almost all of it pointing an accusing finger at staff nurse Letby

The ITV documentary was Letbyism 1.0, mostly consisting of talking points about shift patterns, Post-it notes, door-swipe data etc. that have either been debunked or which are now understood to be irrelevant. The Panorama documentary – the third in what is sure to be an ongoing series – focused on the second phase of Letbyism that began with two press conferences, the second organised by Letby’s PR firm (yes, she has a PR firm working for her), in December 2024 and February 2025. In the first press conference we were told that the insulin tests used to convict her of poisoning Baby F and Baby L were wrong, and that Baby O was accidentally killed by a doctor. In the second press conference we were told that no murders had taken place, that the insulin readings for Babies F and L were perfectly normal, and that Baby O died from a liver injury sustained during childbirth.

Confused? So are they. Letby has a number of distinguished medics in her corner but they seem to be finding it difficult to put forward a consistent narrative. A panel of experts convened by the Canadian neonatologist and economist Dr Shoo Lee has offered innocent explanations for all of the 22 collapses and deaths on Letby’s indictment (including the ones for which she was not convicted, which seems over-eager). Thanks to the unexpected appearance of credible physicians on Team Letby, her supporters have been playing a game of ‘my expert is bigger than your expert’ ever since, but the Court of Appeal is not interested in how ‘eminent’ or ‘world leading’ a witness is. It only wants to know if they have a point, and it is far from obvious that the ‘international panel’, which contains no pathologists, radiologists, endocrinologists or haematologists, have cracked the case by looking at some medical records a decade after the events took place.

Dr Michael Hall, a neonatologist who was ready to give evidence for the defence in Letby’s first trial but was never called, gave short shrift to the panel’s theory that Baby A died from thrombosis. He pointed out that this suggestion had been raised in court and said ‘I’m not sure that the expert witnesses have added anything to that conversation.’
Nor was there any evidence that Baby A’s mother had passed a rare blood-clotting disorder onto the child. On the contrary, blood tests had disproved this.

Hall was also dismissive of the idea that Baby O suffered a liver injury during childbirth. Baby O’s mother had plenty of complaints to air about the Countess of Chester Hospital at the Thirlwall Inquiry, but the standard of her planned Caesarean section was not one of them. In any case, Baby O’s haemoglobin readings strongly suggested that he had not suffered a liver injury at birth and even Letby admitted that whatever happened to his liver had happened ‘on my watch’ the following day.

Speaking anonymously – presumably to avoid the wrath of Letby’s increasingly militant fanbase – a pathologist told Panorama that the theory about Baby O being killed by a doctor’s misplaced needle was poppycock. Indeed, everyone on the show seemed to agree that this never happened, despite Dr Richard Taylor stating it as fact on live television eight months ago.

With regards to the insulin poisonings, Shoo Lee relied on the expertise of the mechanical engineer Dr Geoff Chase and the chemical engineer Dr Helen Shannon, possibly because he couldn’t get any paediatric endocrinologists to come out to bat for Britain’s most prolific child-murderer. In their report, they claimed that the incredibly high insulin readings and extremely low C-peptide readings for Baby F and Baby L were ‘within the expected range for preterm infants’. Professor John Gregory, a paediatric endocrinologist, told Panorama that such readings were ‘exceedingly unlikely’ to be natural; in other words, the babies were almost certainly given exogenous insulin. Interviewed by Panorama, Dr Chase said that ‘within the expected range’ was a poor choice of words, but insisted that such results were ‘not uncommon’. He then downgraded this to ‘unusual’ and ‘possible’.

The only British member of Lee’s panel is Professor Neena Modi. Asked about the claim that Baby O had suffered a liver injury during childbirth, her response was essentially that although there wasn’t any evidence that such an injury had been sustained in this instance, a traumatic childbirth is the kind of thing that could cause a liver injury. It was at this moment that the penny dropped: from the outside, Lee’s panel do not seem to have been looking for the theory with the most evidence to support it, nor even for the most likely explanation. They appear to have been looking for anything that sounds vaguely plausible so long as it doesn’t involve Lucy Letby inflicting deliberate harm on defenceless infants.

Dr Hall, who seems genuinely unsure whether Letby is guilty or innocent, said that he feared that the tenuous opinions of the international panel could ‘rebound’ on her. As this Panorama showed, many of them can be batted away with ease since they were either raised and rejected in court or have no evidence to support them. Letby can go to the Criminal Cases Review Commission as many times as she likes, and is likely to have plenty of time to do so, but every application takes years and the Court of Appeal does not appreciate having its time wasted with lengthy submissions of little merit. The eminence of the experts and the hard work of the PR company do not come into it.

Meanwhile, the public may see distinguished doctors disagreeing and conclude that there must be reasonable doubt by definition, but that is not how it works. Only one side can be right and the medical evidence, though important, was only one part of the case. Hundreds of pieces of evidence could be cited, almost all of it circumstantial but almost all of it pointing an accusing finger at staff nurse Letby. It will take many more documentaries for it all to be broadcast to the viewing public, but at the current rate we should get there by the end of the decade’

The case for Letby’s innocence looks weaker than ever | The Spectator Australia

The annual Panorama documentary on Lucy Letby appeared on BBC 1 this week, barely a week after a more one-sided pro-Letby documentary was shown on ITV. Channel 4 has a Letby show in the works and…

https://www.spectator.com.au/2025/08/the-case-for-letbys-innocence-looks-weaker-than-ever/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR71ZnZ_ZLDSZIvrBL9MuJdZe6JvdNo3J6b2dZmdFCST4Up9C2fUii1mrqPaKA_aem_1nfg3_dieR3vkHauPV6OUw

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 17:16

SeriousFaffing · 17/08/2025 16:31

I see you’re on 30 pages long of guilty, not guilty, she’s innocent, but no we don’t mean she’s innocent, we’re saying not guilty. Probably worth posting this on your new thread too.

Text below from the following link: https://www.spectator.com.au/2025/08/the-case-for-letbys-innocence-looks-weaker-than-ever/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR71ZnZ_ZLDSZIvrBL9MuJdZe6JvdNo3J6b2dZmdFCST4Up9C2fUii1mrqPaKA_aem_1nfg3_dieR3vkHauPV6OUw

‘The annual Panorama documentary on Lucy Letby appeared on BBC 1 this week, barely a week after a more one-sided pro-Letby documentary was shown on ITV. Channel 4 has a Letby show in the works and Channel 5 has already broadcast two.

Fortunately, there is plenty of material for producers to get their teeth into. Not only did her trial last ten months but there was a retrial after that, plus two appeal attempts, and her supporters have been making new claims on any almost weekly basis ever since.
Hundreds of pieces of evidence could be cited, almost all of it circumstantial but almost all of it pointing an accusing finger at staff nurse Letby

The ITV documentary was Letbyism 1.0, mostly consisting of talking points about shift patterns, Post-it notes, door-swipe data etc. that have either been debunked or which are now understood to be irrelevant. The Panorama documentary – the third in what is sure to be an ongoing series – focused on the second phase of Letbyism that began with two press conferences, the second organised by Letby’s PR firm (yes, she has a PR firm working for her), in December 2024 and February 2025. In the first press conference we were told that the insulin tests used to convict her of poisoning Baby F and Baby L were wrong, and that Baby O was accidentally killed by a doctor. In the second press conference we were told that no murders had taken place, that the insulin readings for Babies F and L were perfectly normal, and that Baby O died from a liver injury sustained during childbirth.

Confused? So are they. Letby has a number of distinguished medics in her corner but they seem to be finding it difficult to put forward a consistent narrative. A panel of experts convened by the Canadian neonatologist and economist Dr Shoo Lee has offered innocent explanations for all of the 22 collapses and deaths on Letby’s indictment (including the ones for which she was not convicted, which seems over-eager). Thanks to the unexpected appearance of credible physicians on Team Letby, her supporters have been playing a game of ‘my expert is bigger than your expert’ ever since, but the Court of Appeal is not interested in how ‘eminent’ or ‘world leading’ a witness is. It only wants to know if they have a point, and it is far from obvious that the ‘international panel’, which contains no pathologists, radiologists, endocrinologists or haematologists, have cracked the case by looking at some medical records a decade after the events took place.

Dr Michael Hall, a neonatologist who was ready to give evidence for the defence in Letby’s first trial but was never called, gave short shrift to the panel’s theory that Baby A died from thrombosis. He pointed out that this suggestion had been raised in court and said ‘I’m not sure that the expert witnesses have added anything to that conversation.’
Nor was there any evidence that Baby A’s mother had passed a rare blood-clotting disorder onto the child. On the contrary, blood tests had disproved this.

Hall was also dismissive of the idea that Baby O suffered a liver injury during childbirth. Baby O’s mother had plenty of complaints to air about the Countess of Chester Hospital at the Thirlwall Inquiry, but the standard of her planned Caesarean section was not one of them. In any case, Baby O’s haemoglobin readings strongly suggested that he had not suffered a liver injury at birth and even Letby admitted that whatever happened to his liver had happened ‘on my watch’ the following day.

Speaking anonymously – presumably to avoid the wrath of Letby’s increasingly militant fanbase – a pathologist told Panorama that the theory about Baby O being killed by a doctor’s misplaced needle was poppycock. Indeed, everyone on the show seemed to agree that this never happened, despite Dr Richard Taylor stating it as fact on live television eight months ago.

With regards to the insulin poisonings, Shoo Lee relied on the expertise of the mechanical engineer Dr Geoff Chase and the chemical engineer Dr Helen Shannon, possibly because he couldn’t get any paediatric endocrinologists to come out to bat for Britain’s most prolific child-murderer. In their report, they claimed that the incredibly high insulin readings and extremely low C-peptide readings for Baby F and Baby L were ‘within the expected range for preterm infants’. Professor John Gregory, a paediatric endocrinologist, told Panorama that such readings were ‘exceedingly unlikely’ to be natural; in other words, the babies were almost certainly given exogenous insulin. Interviewed by Panorama, Dr Chase said that ‘within the expected range’ was a poor choice of words, but insisted that such results were ‘not uncommon’. He then downgraded this to ‘unusual’ and ‘possible’.

The only British member of Lee’s panel is Professor Neena Modi. Asked about the claim that Baby O had suffered a liver injury during childbirth, her response was essentially that although there wasn’t any evidence that such an injury had been sustained in this instance, a traumatic childbirth is the kind of thing that could cause a liver injury. It was at this moment that the penny dropped: from the outside, Lee’s panel do not seem to have been looking for the theory with the most evidence to support it, nor even for the most likely explanation. They appear to have been looking for anything that sounds vaguely plausible so long as it doesn’t involve Lucy Letby inflicting deliberate harm on defenceless infants.

Dr Hall, who seems genuinely unsure whether Letby is guilty or innocent, said that he feared that the tenuous opinions of the international panel could ‘rebound’ on her. As this Panorama showed, many of them can be batted away with ease since they were either raised and rejected in court or have no evidence to support them. Letby can go to the Criminal Cases Review Commission as many times as she likes, and is likely to have plenty of time to do so, but every application takes years and the Court of Appeal does not appreciate having its time wasted with lengthy submissions of little merit. The eminence of the experts and the hard work of the PR company do not come into it.

Meanwhile, the public may see distinguished doctors disagreeing and conclude that there must be reasonable doubt by definition, but that is not how it works. Only one side can be right and the medical evidence, though important, was only one part of the case. Hundreds of pieces of evidence could be cited, almost all of it circumstantial but almost all of it pointing an accusing finger at staff nurse Letby. It will take many more documentaries for it all to be broadcast to the viewing public, but at the current rate we should get there by the end of the decade’

Ummm ... you're here too!

Anyway, Snowdon's article. Full of errors and strange assumptions. From a position of no obvious expertise or rigour, he's been harping on about this case for months. He seems to enjoy being the poster boy for those who just don't want to know about problems with the case.

Why is he telling us Neena Modi is the only member of Lee's international panel? What's his point there?

EyeLevelStick · 17/08/2025 17:21

SeriousFaffing · 17/08/2025 16:31

I see you’re on 30 pages long of guilty, not guilty, she’s innocent, but no we don’t mean she’s innocent, we’re saying not guilty. Probably worth posting this on your new thread too.

Text below from the following link: https://www.spectator.com.au/2025/08/the-case-for-letbys-innocence-looks-weaker-than-ever/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR71ZnZ_ZLDSZIvrBL9MuJdZe6JvdNo3J6b2dZmdFCST4Up9C2fUii1mrqPaKA_aem_1nfg3_dieR3vkHauPV6OUw

‘The annual Panorama documentary on Lucy Letby appeared on BBC 1 this week, barely a week after a more one-sided pro-Letby documentary was shown on ITV. Channel 4 has a Letby show in the works and Channel 5 has already broadcast two.

Fortunately, there is plenty of material for producers to get their teeth into. Not only did her trial last ten months but there was a retrial after that, plus two appeal attempts, and her supporters have been making new claims on any almost weekly basis ever since.
Hundreds of pieces of evidence could be cited, almost all of it circumstantial but almost all of it pointing an accusing finger at staff nurse Letby

The ITV documentary was Letbyism 1.0, mostly consisting of talking points about shift patterns, Post-it notes, door-swipe data etc. that have either been debunked or which are now understood to be irrelevant. The Panorama documentary – the third in what is sure to be an ongoing series – focused on the second phase of Letbyism that began with two press conferences, the second organised by Letby’s PR firm (yes, she has a PR firm working for her), in December 2024 and February 2025. In the first press conference we were told that the insulin tests used to convict her of poisoning Baby F and Baby L were wrong, and that Baby O was accidentally killed by a doctor. In the second press conference we were told that no murders had taken place, that the insulin readings for Babies F and L were perfectly normal, and that Baby O died from a liver injury sustained during childbirth.

Confused? So are they. Letby has a number of distinguished medics in her corner but they seem to be finding it difficult to put forward a consistent narrative. A panel of experts convened by the Canadian neonatologist and economist Dr Shoo Lee has offered innocent explanations for all of the 22 collapses and deaths on Letby’s indictment (including the ones for which she was not convicted, which seems over-eager). Thanks to the unexpected appearance of credible physicians on Team Letby, her supporters have been playing a game of ‘my expert is bigger than your expert’ ever since, but the Court of Appeal is not interested in how ‘eminent’ or ‘world leading’ a witness is. It only wants to know if they have a point, and it is far from obvious that the ‘international panel’, which contains no pathologists, radiologists, endocrinologists or haematologists, have cracked the case by looking at some medical records a decade after the events took place.

Dr Michael Hall, a neonatologist who was ready to give evidence for the defence in Letby’s first trial but was never called, gave short shrift to the panel’s theory that Baby A died from thrombosis. He pointed out that this suggestion had been raised in court and said ‘I’m not sure that the expert witnesses have added anything to that conversation.’
Nor was there any evidence that Baby A’s mother had passed a rare blood-clotting disorder onto the child. On the contrary, blood tests had disproved this.

Hall was also dismissive of the idea that Baby O suffered a liver injury during childbirth. Baby O’s mother had plenty of complaints to air about the Countess of Chester Hospital at the Thirlwall Inquiry, but the standard of her planned Caesarean section was not one of them. In any case, Baby O’s haemoglobin readings strongly suggested that he had not suffered a liver injury at birth and even Letby admitted that whatever happened to his liver had happened ‘on my watch’ the following day.

Speaking anonymously – presumably to avoid the wrath of Letby’s increasingly militant fanbase – a pathologist told Panorama that the theory about Baby O being killed by a doctor’s misplaced needle was poppycock. Indeed, everyone on the show seemed to agree that this never happened, despite Dr Richard Taylor stating it as fact on live television eight months ago.

With regards to the insulin poisonings, Shoo Lee relied on the expertise of the mechanical engineer Dr Geoff Chase and the chemical engineer Dr Helen Shannon, possibly because he couldn’t get any paediatric endocrinologists to come out to bat for Britain’s most prolific child-murderer. In their report, they claimed that the incredibly high insulin readings and extremely low C-peptide readings for Baby F and Baby L were ‘within the expected range for preterm infants’. Professor John Gregory, a paediatric endocrinologist, told Panorama that such readings were ‘exceedingly unlikely’ to be natural; in other words, the babies were almost certainly given exogenous insulin. Interviewed by Panorama, Dr Chase said that ‘within the expected range’ was a poor choice of words, but insisted that such results were ‘not uncommon’. He then downgraded this to ‘unusual’ and ‘possible’.

The only British member of Lee’s panel is Professor Neena Modi. Asked about the claim that Baby O had suffered a liver injury during childbirth, her response was essentially that although there wasn’t any evidence that such an injury had been sustained in this instance, a traumatic childbirth is the kind of thing that could cause a liver injury. It was at this moment that the penny dropped: from the outside, Lee’s panel do not seem to have been looking for the theory with the most evidence to support it, nor even for the most likely explanation. They appear to have been looking for anything that sounds vaguely plausible so long as it doesn’t involve Lucy Letby inflicting deliberate harm on defenceless infants.

Dr Hall, who seems genuinely unsure whether Letby is guilty or innocent, said that he feared that the tenuous opinions of the international panel could ‘rebound’ on her. As this Panorama showed, many of them can be batted away with ease since they were either raised and rejected in court or have no evidence to support them. Letby can go to the Criminal Cases Review Commission as many times as she likes, and is likely to have plenty of time to do so, but every application takes years and the Court of Appeal does not appreciate having its time wasted with lengthy submissions of little merit. The eminence of the experts and the hard work of the PR company do not come into it.

Meanwhile, the public may see distinguished doctors disagreeing and conclude that there must be reasonable doubt by definition, but that is not how it works. Only one side can be right and the medical evidence, though important, was only one part of the case. Hundreds of pieces of evidence could be cited, almost all of it circumstantial but almost all of it pointing an accusing finger at staff nurse Letby. It will take many more documentaries for it all to be broadcast to the viewing public, but at the current rate we should get there by the end of the decade’

Nor was there any evidence that Baby A’s mother had passed a rare blood-clotting disorder onto the child.

Nor was there any claim that Baby A’s mother had passed on antiphospholipid syndrome. What the panel said was that maternal antibodies created in response to the syndrome cross the placenta and can cause thromboembolism.

If you and the article’s author don’t understand, I can’t help you other than to suggest you don’t comment.

Shoo Lee relied on the expertise of the mechanical engineer Dr Geoff Chase and the chemical engineer Dr Helen Shannon, possibly because he couldn’t get any paediatric endocrinologists to come out to bat for Britain’s most prolific child-murderer.

It’s Professor Chase. He and Dr Shannon are world-leading experts in relevant technology. Given that the insulin case rests on detection techniques and laboratory analysis, it’s hardly surprising that they were called upon. Neonatal endocrinologists don’t spend much time in the lab... Attempting to use their fields of expertise as slurs makes you and the author look rather silly and desperate.

I could go on, but have dinner to cook.

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 17:31

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 17:16

Ummm ... you're here too!

Anyway, Snowdon's article. Full of errors and strange assumptions. From a position of no obvious expertise or rigour, he's been harping on about this case for months. He seems to enjoy being the poster boy for those who just don't want to know about problems with the case.

Why is he telling us Neena Modi is the only member of Lee's international panel? What's his point there?

Probably the most egregious error here:

it is far from obvious that the ‘international panel’, which contains no pathologists, radiologists, endocrinologists or haematologists, have cracked the case by looking at some medical records a decade after the events took place.

Whenever I read a version of that spiel, I know I'm dealing with someone who is gathering their information from Internet trolls. (I mean Snowdon, not you, to be fair - you had a right to expect better of the Spectator).

Anyone making this claim:

a) hasn't read beyond page 2 of the international panel's second short report, which lists the very impressive credentials of the neonatal pathologist who is indeed a member of the panel.

The report is linked at:

https://lucyletbyinnocence.com/#shoolee

b) knows so little of the case that they've missed the fact that McDonald has assembled experts including an endocrinologist, and who have written complementary reports since submitted to the CCRC

https://thirlwall.public-inquiry.uk/document/letter-from-bhandal-law-to-lady-justice-thirlwall-dated-17-march-2025/

c) knows, or pretends to know, so little of the practice of medicine, that he ignores the obvious facts that medics consult with specific experts in their networks as needed - and Lee's been clear on the fact that they did this.

To see someone so ill-informed trumpeting away as if he has anything significant to say on this topic is just too amusing to be irritating. What a joke. Fortunately for this charlatan, there are "hundreds" of pieces of evidence that could be cited in defence of his weird obsession with Letby's guilt. Maybe one day he'll even tell us what they are.

Seriously? We can't take this man seriously!

(And these are not his only errors - just the ones that make it obvious, immediately, just how unserious and unreliable he is)

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 17:39

SeriousFaffing · 17/08/2025 16:31

I see you’re on 30 pages long of guilty, not guilty, she’s innocent, but no we don’t mean she’s innocent, we’re saying not guilty. Probably worth posting this on your new thread too.

Text below from the following link: https://www.spectator.com.au/2025/08/the-case-for-letbys-innocence-looks-weaker-than-ever/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR71ZnZ_ZLDSZIvrBL9MuJdZe6JvdNo3J6b2dZmdFCST4Up9C2fUii1mrqPaKA_aem_1nfg3_dieR3vkHauPV6OUw

‘The annual Panorama documentary on Lucy Letby appeared on BBC 1 this week, barely a week after a more one-sided pro-Letby documentary was shown on ITV. Channel 4 has a Letby show in the works and Channel 5 has already broadcast two.

Fortunately, there is plenty of material for producers to get their teeth into. Not only did her trial last ten months but there was a retrial after that, plus two appeal attempts, and her supporters have been making new claims on any almost weekly basis ever since.
Hundreds of pieces of evidence could be cited, almost all of it circumstantial but almost all of it pointing an accusing finger at staff nurse Letby

The ITV documentary was Letbyism 1.0, mostly consisting of talking points about shift patterns, Post-it notes, door-swipe data etc. that have either been debunked or which are now understood to be irrelevant. The Panorama documentary – the third in what is sure to be an ongoing series – focused on the second phase of Letbyism that began with two press conferences, the second organised by Letby’s PR firm (yes, she has a PR firm working for her), in December 2024 and February 2025. In the first press conference we were told that the insulin tests used to convict her of poisoning Baby F and Baby L were wrong, and that Baby O was accidentally killed by a doctor. In the second press conference we were told that no murders had taken place, that the insulin readings for Babies F and L were perfectly normal, and that Baby O died from a liver injury sustained during childbirth.

Confused? So are they. Letby has a number of distinguished medics in her corner but they seem to be finding it difficult to put forward a consistent narrative. A panel of experts convened by the Canadian neonatologist and economist Dr Shoo Lee has offered innocent explanations for all of the 22 collapses and deaths on Letby’s indictment (including the ones for which she was not convicted, which seems over-eager). Thanks to the unexpected appearance of credible physicians on Team Letby, her supporters have been playing a game of ‘my expert is bigger than your expert’ ever since, but the Court of Appeal is not interested in how ‘eminent’ or ‘world leading’ a witness is. It only wants to know if they have a point, and it is far from obvious that the ‘international panel’, which contains no pathologists, radiologists, endocrinologists or haematologists, have cracked the case by looking at some medical records a decade after the events took place.

Dr Michael Hall, a neonatologist who was ready to give evidence for the defence in Letby’s first trial but was never called, gave short shrift to the panel’s theory that Baby A died from thrombosis. He pointed out that this suggestion had been raised in court and said ‘I’m not sure that the expert witnesses have added anything to that conversation.’
Nor was there any evidence that Baby A’s mother had passed a rare blood-clotting disorder onto the child. On the contrary, blood tests had disproved this.

Hall was also dismissive of the idea that Baby O suffered a liver injury during childbirth. Baby O’s mother had plenty of complaints to air about the Countess of Chester Hospital at the Thirlwall Inquiry, but the standard of her planned Caesarean section was not one of them. In any case, Baby O’s haemoglobin readings strongly suggested that he had not suffered a liver injury at birth and even Letby admitted that whatever happened to his liver had happened ‘on my watch’ the following day.

Speaking anonymously – presumably to avoid the wrath of Letby’s increasingly militant fanbase – a pathologist told Panorama that the theory about Baby O being killed by a doctor’s misplaced needle was poppycock. Indeed, everyone on the show seemed to agree that this never happened, despite Dr Richard Taylor stating it as fact on live television eight months ago.

With regards to the insulin poisonings, Shoo Lee relied on the expertise of the mechanical engineer Dr Geoff Chase and the chemical engineer Dr Helen Shannon, possibly because he couldn’t get any paediatric endocrinologists to come out to bat for Britain’s most prolific child-murderer. In their report, they claimed that the incredibly high insulin readings and extremely low C-peptide readings for Baby F and Baby L were ‘within the expected range for preterm infants’. Professor John Gregory, a paediatric endocrinologist, told Panorama that such readings were ‘exceedingly unlikely’ to be natural; in other words, the babies were almost certainly given exogenous insulin. Interviewed by Panorama, Dr Chase said that ‘within the expected range’ was a poor choice of words, but insisted that such results were ‘not uncommon’. He then downgraded this to ‘unusual’ and ‘possible’.

The only British member of Lee’s panel is Professor Neena Modi. Asked about the claim that Baby O had suffered a liver injury during childbirth, her response was essentially that although there wasn’t any evidence that such an injury had been sustained in this instance, a traumatic childbirth is the kind of thing that could cause a liver injury. It was at this moment that the penny dropped: from the outside, Lee’s panel do not seem to have been looking for the theory with the most evidence to support it, nor even for the most likely explanation. They appear to have been looking for anything that sounds vaguely plausible so long as it doesn’t involve Lucy Letby inflicting deliberate harm on defenceless infants.

Dr Hall, who seems genuinely unsure whether Letby is guilty or innocent, said that he feared that the tenuous opinions of the international panel could ‘rebound’ on her. As this Panorama showed, many of them can be batted away with ease since they were either raised and rejected in court or have no evidence to support them. Letby can go to the Criminal Cases Review Commission as many times as she likes, and is likely to have plenty of time to do so, but every application takes years and the Court of Appeal does not appreciate having its time wasted with lengthy submissions of little merit. The eminence of the experts and the hard work of the PR company do not come into it.

Meanwhile, the public may see distinguished doctors disagreeing and conclude that there must be reasonable doubt by definition, but that is not how it works. Only one side can be right and the medical evidence, though important, was only one part of the case. Hundreds of pieces of evidence could be cited, almost all of it circumstantial but almost all of it pointing an accusing finger at staff nurse Letby. It will take many more documentaries for it all to be broadcast to the viewing public, but at the current rate we should get there by the end of the decade’

He is like the Dunning Kruger effect incarnate, this man! Does he not know what an expected range is? Of course possible and unusual values can fit in it.

As for baby O, since Snowdon's obviously fathoms out of his depth on this case, no need to blame him for parroting confused snippets from Moritz and Coffey on Panorama. I'll continue to blame them for that. Snowdon has nothing of use or interest to add.

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 17:41

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 17:16

Ummm ... you're here too!

Anyway, Snowdon's article. Full of errors and strange assumptions. From a position of no obvious expertise or rigour, he's been harping on about this case for months. He seems to enjoy being the poster boy for those who just don't want to know about problems with the case.

Why is he telling us Neena Modi is the only member of Lee's international panel? What's his point there?

Only British member, that should have said. What was that about, then?

Mirabai · 17/08/2025 17:47

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 17:16

Ummm ... you're here too!

Anyway, Snowdon's article. Full of errors and strange assumptions. From a position of no obvious expertise or rigour, he's been harping on about this case for months. He seems to enjoy being the poster boy for those who just don't want to know about problems with the case.

Why is he telling us Neena Modi is the only member of Lee's international panel? What's his point there?

Snowdon is an ignorant gammon who will regret tying his colours to this sinking mast. Gill seems to think he doesn’t actually have a PhD as he has tried to get it verified with his university and failed.

2X4B523P · 17/08/2025 18:12

@SeriousFaffing

“it is far from obvious that the ‘international panel’, which contains no pathologists, radiologists, endocrinologists or haematologists, have cracked the case by looking at some medical records a decade after the events took place.”

Yet Dr Evans, who is far less knowledgeable than the panel, was able to crack the case in 10 minutes over a coffee by reading the same records?

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 18:24

2X4B523P · 17/08/2025 18:12

@SeriousFaffing

“it is far from obvious that the ‘international panel’, which contains no pathologists, radiologists, endocrinologists or haematologists, have cracked the case by looking at some medical records a decade after the events took place.”

Yet Dr Evans, who is far less knowledgeable than the panel, was able to crack the case in 10 minutes over a coffee by reading the same records?

You'd have to wonder what we are supposed to use, if not the medical records, given that the pathologists examining the bodies found no evidence of deliberate harm. What's left?

The panel did have access to the "expert" witness reports and records from the trial too, I suppose. To that extent, they're better informed than Evans. And of course, they've asked to be allowed to complete their work by examining obstetric notes, which Evans seems not to have bothered with.

placemats · 17/08/2025 18:28

@SeriousFaffing regarding your post: tldr Snowden lacks capacity to write anything with intelligence. He claims that Letby was nicknamed Nurse Death by fellow nursing colleagues, contrary to evidence given in the Thirlwall enquiry. HTH

Hotflushesandchilblains · 17/08/2025 18:38

Intothesunshine · 17/08/2025 13:54

I acknowledge your comments but there are also really poor clinical staff across all disciplines -

Yep, never claimed otherwise - not sure what point you are trying to make? I worked in the US for over a decade and in the UK for 15+ years. Have worked with doctors every day. Many many. So am speaking from a position of knowledge.

Moleole · 17/08/2025 18:47

Im open minded about it all, if the conviction is robust then a retrial wouldn't hurt (aside from for the poor families). Yet to find a non-bias documentary mind, in this case its possible to cherry pick evidence and statements to support either side imo.

Im curious about the experts- how many are there in the world? Are the 15 a sizable chunk or a small %? Seen different accounts as to whether they were selected by her defence to look into it, or whether they approached her defence; makes a difference when the report doesn't actually seem that ground breaking. Also presumed they were all doctors until saw one was an engineer who declined to share any evidence to support his claims. So say are the 14.

rubbishatballet · 17/08/2025 19:09

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 17:41

Only British member, that should have said. What was that about, then?

I think his point may be that if she’s the only British member then she would be the only one of the panel who works/has worked within and/or properly understands the context (NHS, regulatory, clinical governance etc etc) that these deaths and injuries occurred within and which the experts are opining on.

(BTW I don’t know off the top of my head if she actually is the only British member of the panel, before anyone jumps in to correct and chastise me)

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 19:27

Moleole · 17/08/2025 18:47

Im open minded about it all, if the conviction is robust then a retrial wouldn't hurt (aside from for the poor families). Yet to find a non-bias documentary mind, in this case its possible to cherry pick evidence and statements to support either side imo.

Im curious about the experts- how many are there in the world? Are the 15 a sizable chunk or a small %? Seen different accounts as to whether they were selected by her defence to look into it, or whether they approached her defence; makes a difference when the report doesn't actually seem that ground breaking. Also presumed they were all doctors until saw one was an engineer who declined to share any evidence to support his claims. So say are the 14.

So, one of the international panel heard about the trial as it was happening and contacted the defence to express concerns (Neena Modi). Later, after the conviction, the defence was preparing to ask permission to appeal and approached another expert (Shoo Lee) because he had written a paper the prosecution relied in, but their own expert believed it was being misrepresented. Lee was in Canada so had just seen a headline about the case - no other knowledge.

Lee agreed his paper was being misused and offered to give evidence. After the request to appeal was turned down, he offered to assemble a panel of experts internationally to get the most authorative view possible of the most likely causes of death. I'd presume the defence put him in touch with Neena Modi at that point. She wasn't the only medical expert who had got in touch to offer help and state concerns, and the international panel's work isn't the only material McDonald submitted. So if you want to leave Geoffrey Chase off the list of medical doctors, that's fine - he's an expert in insulin testing, and McDonald has a separate endocrinologist submitting reports for him. But medical testing is his field.

It's really interesting that you say their work isn't groundbreaking, because that's the point in a way. The report shouldn't need to be ground-breaking. What the experts said at their initial press conference is that they were finding lots of obvious problems with the children's care. Same as the reviewers who looked at their standard of care back in 2016 after the Royal College of Pediatrics and Children's Health recommended this. The point wasn't that they had to find anything very rare, but that Lee wanted to make sure he had people with the best credentials who were obviously more than qualified for the job.

On the insulin results, I'd say watch this space for a little while. That is the groundbreaking research. It has to be, because nobody has ever needed to prove premature babies weren't poisoned with insulin before, because the hospital could have proved that by sending on for further testing straight away. The sensible thing - what Lee did in fact - is to conduct fresh research for a legal report and to prepare an academic paper for scrutiny by your peers and publication at the same time. That's the gold standard. I'd imagine it's in the pipeline.

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 19:29

rubbishatballet · 17/08/2025 19:09

I think his point may be that if she’s the only British member then she would be the only one of the panel who works/has worked within and/or properly understands the context (NHS, regulatory, clinical governance etc etc) that these deaths and injuries occurred within and which the experts are opining on.

(BTW I don’t know off the top of my head if she actually is the only British member of the panel, before anyone jumps in to correct and chastise me)

There's no reason you should know it, so not jumping down your throat, but Modi isn't the only member of the panel currently working for the NHS. So can't be that, but thanks.

rubbishatballet · 17/08/2025 19:54

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 19:29

There's no reason you should know it, so not jumping down your throat, but Modi isn't the only member of the panel currently working for the NHS. So can't be that, but thanks.

So what do you think his point is then?

Oftenaddled · 17/08/2025 19:58

rubbishatballet · 17/08/2025 19:54

So what do you think his point is then?

I don't know. It's just dropped in there, isn't it? Is it meant to make us think less of the panel, since in general, he's sneering at them? That would seem like very blatant racism if so. But how else to explain it?

Kittybythelighthouse · 17/08/2025 20:15

Viviennemary · 17/08/2025 16:24

That's how I thought it would work.

You’d think so, but it’s not what happened here.

OP posts:
Kittybythelighthouse · 17/08/2025 20:20

rubbishatballet · 17/08/2025 19:09

I think his point may be that if she’s the only British member then she would be the only one of the panel who works/has worked within and/or properly understands the context (NHS, regulatory, clinical governance etc etc) that these deaths and injuries occurred within and which the experts are opining on.

(BTW I don’t know off the top of my head if she actually is the only British member of the panel, before anyone jumps in to correct and chastise me)

Dewi Evans retired 16 years ago. Even if this appeal to procedure wasn’t a weak argument to begin with he himself also doesn’t understand the NHS of today. Not that it makes a blind bit of difference when talking about physiology and harm. They don’t make babies differently in the NHS. British babies aren’t an alien species vs Swedish babies.

OP posts:
Kittybythelighthouse · 17/08/2025 20:28

Moleole · 17/08/2025 18:47

Im open minded about it all, if the conviction is robust then a retrial wouldn't hurt (aside from for the poor families). Yet to find a non-bias documentary mind, in this case its possible to cherry pick evidence and statements to support either side imo.

Im curious about the experts- how many are there in the world? Are the 15 a sizable chunk or a small %? Seen different accounts as to whether they were selected by her defence to look into it, or whether they approached her defence; makes a difference when the report doesn't actually seem that ground breaking. Also presumed they were all doctors until saw one was an engineer who declined to share any evidence to support his claims. So say are the 14.

This idea that the panel are “declining to share’ their evidence - perpetuated by an episode of panorama that was full of holes and extremely weak journalism - is nonsense. Of course they haven’t given it to Judith Moritz.

It’s with the CCRC and (probably) the families. People are quick to criticise the defence for seeking publicity but as soon as it comes to something that is sensitive and shouldn’t be made public until it’s gone through the proper processes it’s a failure.

OP posts:
Kittybythelighthouse · 17/08/2025 20:30

SeriousFaffing · 17/08/2025 16:31

I see you’re on 30 pages long of guilty, not guilty, she’s innocent, but no we don’t mean she’s innocent, we’re saying not guilty. Probably worth posting this on your new thread too.

Text below from the following link: https://www.spectator.com.au/2025/08/the-case-for-letbys-innocence-looks-weaker-than-ever/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR71ZnZ_ZLDSZIvrBL9MuJdZe6JvdNo3J6b2dZmdFCST4Up9C2fUii1mrqPaKA_aem_1nfg3_dieR3vkHauPV6OUw

‘The annual Panorama documentary on Lucy Letby appeared on BBC 1 this week, barely a week after a more one-sided pro-Letby documentary was shown on ITV. Channel 4 has a Letby show in the works and Channel 5 has already broadcast two.

Fortunately, there is plenty of material for producers to get their teeth into. Not only did her trial last ten months but there was a retrial after that, plus two appeal attempts, and her supporters have been making new claims on any almost weekly basis ever since.
Hundreds of pieces of evidence could be cited, almost all of it circumstantial but almost all of it pointing an accusing finger at staff nurse Letby

The ITV documentary was Letbyism 1.0, mostly consisting of talking points about shift patterns, Post-it notes, door-swipe data etc. that have either been debunked or which are now understood to be irrelevant. The Panorama documentary – the third in what is sure to be an ongoing series – focused on the second phase of Letbyism that began with two press conferences, the second organised by Letby’s PR firm (yes, she has a PR firm working for her), in December 2024 and February 2025. In the first press conference we were told that the insulin tests used to convict her of poisoning Baby F and Baby L were wrong, and that Baby O was accidentally killed by a doctor. In the second press conference we were told that no murders had taken place, that the insulin readings for Babies F and L were perfectly normal, and that Baby O died from a liver injury sustained during childbirth.

Confused? So are they. Letby has a number of distinguished medics in her corner but they seem to be finding it difficult to put forward a consistent narrative. A panel of experts convened by the Canadian neonatologist and economist Dr Shoo Lee has offered innocent explanations for all of the 22 collapses and deaths on Letby’s indictment (including the ones for which she was not convicted, which seems over-eager). Thanks to the unexpected appearance of credible physicians on Team Letby, her supporters have been playing a game of ‘my expert is bigger than your expert’ ever since, but the Court of Appeal is not interested in how ‘eminent’ or ‘world leading’ a witness is. It only wants to know if they have a point, and it is far from obvious that the ‘international panel’, which contains no pathologists, radiologists, endocrinologists or haematologists, have cracked the case by looking at some medical records a decade after the events took place.

Dr Michael Hall, a neonatologist who was ready to give evidence for the defence in Letby’s first trial but was never called, gave short shrift to the panel’s theory that Baby A died from thrombosis. He pointed out that this suggestion had been raised in court and said ‘I’m not sure that the expert witnesses have added anything to that conversation.’
Nor was there any evidence that Baby A’s mother had passed a rare blood-clotting disorder onto the child. On the contrary, blood tests had disproved this.

Hall was also dismissive of the idea that Baby O suffered a liver injury during childbirth. Baby O’s mother had plenty of complaints to air about the Countess of Chester Hospital at the Thirlwall Inquiry, but the standard of her planned Caesarean section was not one of them. In any case, Baby O’s haemoglobin readings strongly suggested that he had not suffered a liver injury at birth and even Letby admitted that whatever happened to his liver had happened ‘on my watch’ the following day.

Speaking anonymously – presumably to avoid the wrath of Letby’s increasingly militant fanbase – a pathologist told Panorama that the theory about Baby O being killed by a doctor’s misplaced needle was poppycock. Indeed, everyone on the show seemed to agree that this never happened, despite Dr Richard Taylor stating it as fact on live television eight months ago.

With regards to the insulin poisonings, Shoo Lee relied on the expertise of the mechanical engineer Dr Geoff Chase and the chemical engineer Dr Helen Shannon, possibly because he couldn’t get any paediatric endocrinologists to come out to bat for Britain’s most prolific child-murderer. In their report, they claimed that the incredibly high insulin readings and extremely low C-peptide readings for Baby F and Baby L were ‘within the expected range for preterm infants’. Professor John Gregory, a paediatric endocrinologist, told Panorama that such readings were ‘exceedingly unlikely’ to be natural; in other words, the babies were almost certainly given exogenous insulin. Interviewed by Panorama, Dr Chase said that ‘within the expected range’ was a poor choice of words, but insisted that such results were ‘not uncommon’. He then downgraded this to ‘unusual’ and ‘possible’.

The only British member of Lee’s panel is Professor Neena Modi. Asked about the claim that Baby O had suffered a liver injury during childbirth, her response was essentially that although there wasn’t any evidence that such an injury had been sustained in this instance, a traumatic childbirth is the kind of thing that could cause a liver injury. It was at this moment that the penny dropped: from the outside, Lee’s panel do not seem to have been looking for the theory with the most evidence to support it, nor even for the most likely explanation. They appear to have been looking for anything that sounds vaguely plausible so long as it doesn’t involve Lucy Letby inflicting deliberate harm on defenceless infants.

Dr Hall, who seems genuinely unsure whether Letby is guilty or innocent, said that he feared that the tenuous opinions of the international panel could ‘rebound’ on her. As this Panorama showed, many of them can be batted away with ease since they were either raised and rejected in court or have no evidence to support them. Letby can go to the Criminal Cases Review Commission as many times as she likes, and is likely to have plenty of time to do so, but every application takes years and the Court of Appeal does not appreciate having its time wasted with lengthy submissions of little merit. The eminence of the experts and the hard work of the PR company do not come into it.

Meanwhile, the public may see distinguished doctors disagreeing and conclude that there must be reasonable doubt by definition, but that is not how it works. Only one side can be right and the medical evidence, though important, was only one part of the case. Hundreds of pieces of evidence could be cited, almost all of it circumstantial but almost all of it pointing an accusing finger at staff nurse Letby. It will take many more documentaries for it all to be broadcast to the viewing public, but at the current rate we should get there by the end of the decade’

Good lord. Did you just post the entire text of an article by Christopher ‘works for the tobacco lobby’ Snowdon? The man is an idiot who doesn’t have a single unique thought in his head. A professional contrarian. Please 🙄

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