Letby's Appeal Fails But Questions Remain

Today it was announced that Lucy Letby had failed in her latest appeal against a conviction.

In particular, this appeal was against the conviction for the attempted murder of ‘Child K’ back in July which followed a retrial. Her lawyers had argued that the retrial was prejudiced by the media coverage of the original trial, but the panel of judges were not convinced that this was enough to warrant a challenge of the conviction.

That appeal was always going to be an uphill struggle. The argument relied on media reporting of the original convictions and that the vitriolic sentiments expressed towards Letby in the coverage meant that the retrial should be stayed as an abuse of process. However, the reality was that Letby had been subjected to such coverage in the media since before she was even found guilty on any charge, and the Court of Appeal pointed out that the experienced judge in the case had done everything in his power to ensure that Letby had received a fair trial.

This decision comes on the back of more revelations about the former nurse from the inquiry taking place at Liverpool Town Hall. Lady Justice Thirlwall has heard Letby described as “cold” by former colleagues when she failed her last year placement as a nursing student and how she gave a baby a morphine overdose years before the first murder was committed.

Thinking about all of this, it seems like it would be almost impossible for anyone to maintain that Letby is innocent, and yet there are still important questions that remain to be answered.