LUCY LETBY CASE: PART 30
Prosecution error
ON 30 September, Dr Dewi Evans, chief prosecution expert in the Lucy Letby trial, issued an extraordinary press statement calling on the police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the prosecution team to “set the record straight” over the method used by Letby to murder Baby C.
The jury found Letby guilty of the murder of Baby C by injecting air down the nasogastric tube, largely based on an X-ray taken on 12 June 2015, showing a large amount of air in the baby’s stomach which multiple prosecution experts (initially including Evans), decided was a deliberate act of harm by Letby.
The only problem was that Letby wasn’t on duty for Baby C until 13 June. Prosecution barrister Nicholas Johnson KC decided she must have injected air in the stomach on 13 June instead, failing to explain what caused all the “non-Letby air” on 12 June. He told the jury on 21 June 2023: “When you put Baby C’s case alongside the others, it’s as plain as the nose on your face that Lucy Letby must have injected air down the nasogastric tube into Baby C’s stomach. It was, after all, one of her favourite ways of killing…” This method was also cited in the murders of babies I and P.