Complaints made by Guernsey based families about a doctor practicing in the island will be included in the bundle of evidence being presented to the Criminal Cases Review Commission by Lucy Letby’s legal team as she tries to appeal her conviction for murdering babies.
The former neonatal nurse is serving a whole life sentence for the murder of seven infants and the attempted murder of seven more babies.
She is also facing the possibility of prosecution in relation to the deaths and non-fatal collapse of other babies at hospitals where she worked before moving to the Countess of Chester Hospital where the attacks she has already been convicted of occurred.
However, there is growing public support for her original case to be retried with medical experts joining the calls of those who say she is the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Barrister Mark McDonald is leading the efforts to have her conviction and sentence quashed.
Mr McDonald was in Guernsey this week where he was interviewed and answered questions from the audience in a public forum.
He denied his pro-bono work on the case was for his own publicity, saying that to win an appeal in the court of law, you must first win public backing.
“What I’ve done, hopefully, is say there’s an alternative narrative here, and I’ve won the public battle which is as important as winning the legal battle,” he explained.
He also cited examples of other nurses serving sentences for harming patients, and said if Letby wins her appeal, he will then help those men challenge their convictions too.
“I’ve seen this happen before,” he said. “There are four nurses in prison for harming patients – we hear about Lucy, the other three are men.
“My hope is that we get referred back to the Court of Appeal. The Court agrees the conviction is unsafe, we get a retrial and I call 28 experts to give evidence, she’s found not guilty and released, and then there’s a public inquiry and the other nurses become part of that inquiry.”
Letby’s legal team, led by Mr McDonald applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission earlier this year. The CCRC is an independent public body that reviews possible miscarriages of justice in the UK’s criminal courts.
Speaking in Guernsey on Thursday evening, Mr McDonald confirmed that he is aware of local complaints about one of the doctors who gave evidence for the prosecution in Letby’s first trial, in which she was convicted of the murder of six babies.
Dr Sandie Bohin is a Consultant Paediatrician employed through the Medical Specialist Group in Guernsey. She also works as an ‘expert witness’ in both crown and coroners courts.
For the Letby case, Dr Bohin was tasked with reviewing evidence provided by lead expert witness for the prosecution Dr Dewi Evans.
She confirmed that she believed that Letby had attacked the babies by injecting air or insulin into their blood streams. Other medical experts have since disagreed with this and have said they believe the babies all died or suffered near fatal collapses due to natural causes or poor levels of care.
Separately to her work on the Letby case, Dr Bohin has been at the centre of local concerns around safeguarding in Guernsey for the past few years.
This first came to light when she was named by Deputy Gavin St Pier during a States meeting in 2022. It has since been confirmed that other families have raised concerns with Deputy St Pier about Dr Bohin – he recently said that number has risen to 27.
Answering questions from the audience on Thursday night, Mr McDonald confirmed he was aware of the ongoing situation, with Deputy St Pier facing suspension from the States after he confirmed the number of complaints he has received about Dr Bohin in a telephone call with a national newspaper journalist earlier this year.
Mr McDonald also confirmed that he has spoken with some of the families who have raised concerns about Dr Bohin locally and that their evidence will be used in efforts to appeal Letby’s conviction.
“I’m aware of what’s happening, but I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole because it’s not my job…,” he said.
“I can say I’ve met with some of the families here, and I’ve got some of the documents and they will be submitted to the CCRC.”
Mr McDonald was interviewed by Matt Fallaize at Les Cotils in a privately arranged event which was open to the public.
It was revealed on the night that Mr McDonald is a regular visitor to Guernsey as he has family and friends here. It was explained that the interview was arranged because of the widespread interest in the Letby case, and that the date was chosen because Mr McDonald had a pre-arranged trip to Guernsey planned.