Mary Dejevsky

Can our justice system handle cases like Lucy Letby’s?

Lucy Letby (photo: Getty)

Could Lucy Letby, the UK’s most notorious child-murderer, be innocent? The question has rumbled on ever since her convictions for the killing or attempted killing of 14 babies while a neo-natal nurse at Chester Hospital. It is a question that was given more substance this week by a panel of specialists, whose evidence forms the basis of an application from her lawyers to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which could allow an appeal. 

The matter of Letby’s guilt or innocence is not the only question raised by this case, however. Another, which has so far lurked mostly in the background, concerns nothing less than the quality of the English judicial process. Should an appeal succeed, this question would spring into the foreground.

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