Five new claims about Lucy Letby – and what it means for her appeal hopes

Lucy Letby has failed – twice – to get judges to overturn her convictions for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more. The Thirlwall public inquiry into her case last week found she could have been caught sooner. Yet Letby continues to protest her innocence and has been backed by a significant campaign including high-profile individuals such as the Conservative MP Sir David Davis. Fresh claims that her prosecution is a major miscarriage of justice are made in the new documentary Lucy Letby – Scapegoat?, a collaboration between The Sun and Channel 5. Shorts Here, The i Paper looks at five of the most important claims – and the evidence that has already been examined in court. ‘Lucy Letby was a scapegoat’ A doctor who worked alongside Letby at the Countess of Chester Hospital says he believes the evidence used to convict her is “extremely poor” and that there was no killer on the neonatal unit. He told The Sun he believes Letby was used as a “scapegoat” by hospital bosses to cover up the fact the unit was performing poorly. The doctor has not been identified but is described as a “top consultant”. Individual failings and sub-optimal care at the Countess of Chester Hospital were discussed at length during both of Letby’s trials, but prosecutors insisted they did not explain the deaths and collapses of babies. At least four other senior doctors – Ravi Jayaram, Stephen Brearey, John Gibbs and another who could not be named for legal reasons during the trial – were among those to raise the alarm at the time and eventually point their suspicions at Letby. The idea that the jury were not able to consider poor care as an explanation for what happened to the babies was also rejected by Court of Appeal judges. ‘Unseen insulin results raise doubts’ The new documentary also claims that there was a set of results relating to a baby who was poisoned by Letby that were not shared with the jury. Letby was convicted of attempting to murder two babies in separate incidents by secretly injecting insulin into IV bags which were being used to treat them. During the trial, jurors were told how a blood result for Baby F showed low C-peptide to insulin, a key indicator that high levels of insulin had come from an external source rather than being produced by the body. The result was spotted by a doctor at the time but she told the Thirlwall Inquiry she found the idea that the baby had been poisoned deliberately “so fantastical and unlikely that that couldn’t possibly be what had happened”. She only brought the result up when the police investigation into Letby began two years later. Screen grab taken from body-worn camera footage issued by Cheshire Constabulary of the arrest of Lucy Letby (Photo: Cheshire Constabulary/PA) The Sun now claims that there were a further 14 glucose readings which were “normal” at the time Baby F was poisoned but that this evidence was not shown to the jury. Retired detective Stuart Clifton, who investigated killer nurse Beverley Allitt, said the result should offer “clear grounds for appeal”. Baby died after Letby left the unit A mother has said her baby suddenly collapsed at the Countess of Chester Hospital and later died, six months after Letby was taken off the unit. Annalise McClements said her son Archie died at St Mary’s hospital in Manchester after being moved from the Countess of Chester due to the seriousness of his illness. The statistics around the unusual number of collapses and deaths at the Countess of Chester between 2015 and 2016 were a key part of the prosecution case. The Thirlwall Inquiry set out how there was one death in 2010, three in 2011, three in 2012, two in 2013 and three in 2014. Then, in 2015, eight babies admitted to the unit died. Since Letby left the unit in July 2016, there has been one death, in September 2019. Expert questions method of alleged murders One of the methods by which Letby was said to have murdered babies was injecting them with air to cause an air embolism. Evidence to prove this is what happened to the infants was discussed at length in both of her trials. But a number of experts have since questioned whether this was a realistic explanation for the collapses. Vascular surgeon Dr Colin Ferguson did not give evidence in the case but has become the latest to cast doubt on the theory. Supporters of Lucy Letby gather outside the Thirwall Inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall on September 15, 2026, in Liverpool (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty) “These babies haven’t died from air embolism,” he told The Sun. “The fact that in no case was air found in the heart at post-mortem means that this is just not true.” Email ‘undermines doctor’s evidence’ Following her retrial, Letby was convicted of attempting to murder a baby by removing her breathing tube. A key piece of evidence related to the account of Jayaram, who said he walked in to find Baby K having collapsed with Letby standing over her cot doing nothing. The doctor claimed he had had gone to check on the baby because he was becoming increasingly concerned at the pattern of Letby being present when babies unexpectedly collapsed in the unit. But the new documentary has obtained a contemporaneous email written by Jayaram at the time in which he recalls the incident and says: “Staff nurse Letby at incubator and called Dr Jayaram to inform of low saturations.” The discrepancy over whether Jayaram went in because he was worried or because Letby called him for help was highlighted in the Thirlwall report. Jayaram declined to comment when approached by The Sun for the new documentary. What happens next? Letby remains in prison and her only avenue to clear her name is an application to the miscarriages of justice watchdog the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). The CCRC is currently considering an application from Letby’s team including a bundle of evidence from around 30 experts who have looked at the case. However, the commission has insisted it will act impartially and will not be influenced by the strength of any external campaigns. There is no timeline as to when the CCRC will decide whether it believes Letby’s case should be referred back to the Court of Appeal or not. Only a fraction of all applications submitted to the CCRC are successful each year.