The Sark-based retired doctor who has been a vocal supporter of Lucy Letby has added evidence to the bundle being examined by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
The CCRC examines potential miscarriages of justice in the UK and has the power to recommend Letby’s case goes to the court of appeal, or not.
The initial bundle of evidence collated by Letby’s defence team was submitted to the CCRC last February – after she had twice been refused leave to appeal her conviction for seven murders and the attempted murder of seven more babies.
Dr Roger Norwich – a medico-legal expert who retired to Sark – has recently submitted further evidence to the CCRC and he’s hopeful it will help convince the Commission that Letby deserves the chance to appeal her convictions.
“I’ve submitted evidence about Baby M, and it was a case where Dr Evans and Bohin had said that the only possible possibility of what happened to that baby was that the child had been given an air embolism by Lucy, whereas there are definitely other reasonable diagnoses which would and should have been given to the jury, and they just didn’t do it,” he explained.
“Their duty is to give a balanced view and provide alternatives for the jury to decide on, and they simply didn’t do that.”
Baby M was a twin baby boy whose heart stopped beating while he was being cared for by medical staff, including former nurse Letby, at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2016.
She was convicted of attempting to murder him, the attempted murder of six other babies and the murder of seven more in 2023 after evidence given by Dr Evans and now-retired Guernsey-based paediatrician Dr Bohin was accepted by the jury.
Dr Norwich said he and other medico-legal experts dispute the evidence given by the two prosecution witnesses.
“The real medical evidence is that these babies were either simply undiagnosed as being as ill as they were, or that there was medical negligence.
“They were very junior doctors dealing with these (babies).
“Some of the doctors are GP trainees that would not have had a clue what they were doing, and the whole unit was understaffed and under-resourced, and the consultants don’t seem to have done what they needed to do, and what they needed to do when they started being aware of all the infections in the unit and of deaths that they themselves didn’t understand, they should have had the guts to close the unit down.
“Certainly, close it down as a level two, but instead of closing it down as a level two, they were even taking level three patients which was in my view, completely negligent.”
Letby is currently serving a whole life sentence for her crimes.
However, a number of supporters – including medical experts – continue to raise doubts about her guilt.
Dr Norwich said a documentary aired this week, produced by The Sun newspaper and Channel 5, was right to label Letby a “scapegoat” for other failings at the hospital.
“I think it was very convenient for lots of people in that unit,” he said.
“The unit clearly was completely failing, and the fact that babies were dying and were described as dying because of unexplained reasons, it was very convenient for the consultants there to find a reason for that, which didn’t involve them being blamed for what was going on in the units.
“As I say, they should have realised that the unit, in fact they must have realised that the unit was inadequate, and they should have had the guts to stand up and say we are not going to practice under these circumstances.”
Dr Norwich is hopeful that the evidence he has submitted to the CCRC around Baby M’s near-fatal collapse, and other evidence submitted by a range of medico-legal experts will help secure Letby’s freedom.
He said it is a very long process though.
Express has attempted to reach Dr Sandie Bohin for comment on the latest claims surrounding the evidence presented by the prosecution in Letby’s conviction.
