Exclusive:
The Church of England Newspaper backed the former nurse, who is serving 15 whole-life terms, after leading neonatologist Professor Shoo Lee claimed last month that she could be innocent
A church newspaper has run an article calling for forgiveness for Lucy Letby.
The Church of England Newspaper backed the former nurse, who is serving 15 whole-life terms, after leading neonatologist Professor Shoo Lee claimed last month that she could be innocent. Its piece will be met with dismay by families of children killed in her care at the Countess of Chester hospital.
Letby, 35, killed seven newborns and tried to kill seven more. The paper’s leader column claims Letby has been “monstered, in ways reminiscent of medieval women being demonised as witches and executed.” Her barrister Mark McDonald is lauded as “a light of generosity and concern for justice”.
Of her guilt, it adds: “[There] is now a convincing analysis of the fate of those babies in Chester…those who monstered Letby must realise that this may have been a mistake. We must profoundly hope that establishment self-defensiveness will not set in and prevent speedy dealing with this situation.”
The writer also compares Letby’s case to a historic miscarriage of justice involving a Captain wrongly jailed in the 1800s. The Church of England Newspaper is independent of the Anglican hierarchy and owned by Christian Weekly Newspapers.
Letby is serving 15 whole-life sentences after she was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester hospital – with two attempts on one of her victims – between June 2015 and June 2016.
Last month, Dr Lee and other medics said the deaths could be blamed on poor care, infected sinks and accidents by overworked and under-resourced medics.
Ken Macdonald KC, who had been a wholehearted supporter of Letby’s conviction, said Mr Lee’s evidence “comprehensively trashed the prosecution case”. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, has started to assess Letby’s case, which is said to involve a “significant volume of complicated evidence.”
The CofE declined to comment.
