3 hours ago
7
An official report on the deaths and unexplained collapses of babies at a hospital where nurse Lucy Letby worked will be published early next year, months later than originally planned.
Lady Justice Thirlwall had previously said she hoped her findings from the public inquiry, to examine how the former nurse Lucy Letby was able to murder babies at the Countess of Chester hospital’s neonatal unit, in north-west England, would be released in November.
However, a statement issued on the Thirlwall Inquiry website on Thursday said: “The inquiry has written to core participants with an update on the progress of the final report.
“The chair, Lady Justice Thirlwall, is expected to send out warning letters from September 2025 and the final report will be completed by the end of November. The report will then undergo copy editing and typesetting, ahead of publication in early 2026.”
“Warning letters” are sent to those who may be subject to significant or explicit criticism in an inquiry report and allows them the chance to respond.
Letby, 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.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, is considering evidence presented on her behalf from an international panel of experts who claim poor medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the babies collapsing.
Lawyers for the families of Letby’s victims have dismissed those conclusions as “full of analytical holes” and “a rehash” of the defence case heard at trial.
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 hospitals 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.
