Jeremy Hunt calls for ‘urgent re-examination' of Lucy Letby case
The Conservative MP pleaded for the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, to 'speed up their normally painfully slow process'.
The CCRC is considering evidence presented by Letby's legal team from an international panel of medics who claim poor medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the babies collapsing at the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit.
The former nurse, 35, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted across two trials at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.
Giving evidence in January at the Thirlwall Inquiry over Letby's crimes, Sir Jeremy – who was Health Secretary between 2012 and 2018 – acknowledged the 'appalling crime' took place under his watch and he bore ultimately responsibility for the NHS ' insofar as lessons were not learned from previous inquiries that could have been or the right systems were not in place'.
He said: 'I want to put on the record my apologies to the families for anything that did not happen that potentially could have prevented such an appalling crime.'
Writing in the Daily Mail newspaper on Wednesday, Sir Jeremy said: 'I am not arguing that Letby is innocent. That is not my place. I believe in the separation of powers. It must never be the role of any politician to second-guess the outcome of any court decision, let alone a jury trial.
'The pain endured by the families affected must also be at the forefront of our minds. Their suffering is beyond our comprehension and they deserve compassion, respect and ongoing support.
'But most of all, they deserve the truth. And recently, some have begun to cast doubt on what actually happened. Were those tragic deaths caused by an evil woman or were they the result of medical error?
'As someone who has campaigned for more than a decade to reduce avoidable death, that matters to me.
'If Letby really did kill seven babies in their cots and attempted to kill seven more, no punishment short of the death penalty is too harsh. But if they were caused by professional shortcomings, we need to know why.
'More than anything else, we need to make sure other families don't have to go through the same tragedy.'
Sir Jeremy said he had noted the findings of the international panel of paediatric specialists and neonatologists, and had also read a 'wide range of expert concerns about the conduct of the criminal case',
He said: 'Taken together – and it pains me to say it – this analysis raises serious and credible questions about the evidence presented in court, the robustness of expert testimony and the interpretation of statistical data.
'That is why I and parliamentary colleagues such as Sir David Davis, now believe the time has come for these concerns to be addressed as a matter of urgency.'
He continued: 'While there is such a high degree of speculation about the potentially unfair prosecution of a healthcare professional, others will feel much more nervous about coming forward about mistakes they may have made. Lessons will not be learned and more babies will die.
'Justice must be done and seen to be done. And that means the CCRC has to speed up their normally painfully slow process.'
He added that 'none of this should diminish the compassion we owe the families who have already suffered so much'.
He said: 'Re-examination of the evidence is not a denial of their pain. But it will ensure that all of us can have confidence that the truth has been reached through a rigorous and fair process.
'And if medical error was the cause, we can then make sure no more babies die from the same mistakes.'
Flagging up the article, Sir Jeremy wrote on his X social media account: 'Took a lot of soul searching for me to get to this point.'
Lawyers for the families of Letby's victims dismissed the medical panel's conclusions as 'full of analytical holes' and 'a rehash' of the defence case heard at trial.
The mother of a baby boy who Letby attempted to murder said the families 'already have the truth' and they believed in the British justice system and that the jury made the right decision.
While the mother of another boy, Baby C, who Letby was convicted of murdering, told the Thirlwall Inquiry: 'The media PR campaign aimed to garner public sympathy for Letby demonstrates a complete lack of understanding for Letby's crimes and the complexity of the case.
'The misinformed and inaccurate media circus surrounding this case, our son and the other babies is potentiating the distress of all of the families involved.'
Letby, from Hereford, lost two bids last year to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal, in May for seven murders and seven attempted murders, and in October for the attempted murder of a baby girl, which she was convicted of by a different jury at a retrial.
Cheshire Constabulary is continuing a review of deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neonatal units of the Countess of Chester and Liverpool Women's Hospital during Letby's time as a nurse from 2012 to 2016.A separate probe by the force into corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter at the Countess of Chester Hospital also remains ongoing.
Lady Justice Thirlwall is due to publish the findings from her public inquiry in early 2026.
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