The chair leading the inquiry into the crimes by former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby is considering a request to pause the proceedings.
Among those who have asked for the inquiry to be halted is Alison Kelly, the former nursing director of the trust where Letby worked.
“A postponement, which would necessarily be of indeterminate length, is not warranted”
Andrew Kennedy
The Thirlwall Inquiry is hearing closing statements from its core participants today and tomorrow, which will conclude seven months of evidence sessions.
The inquiry chair, Lady Justice Thirlwall, is then due to compile a report of findings and recommendations.
However, at the opening of the hearing today, Lady Thirlwall said she had received a number of requests to pause the inquiry.
Letby is currently serving multiple life sentences in prison for the murder of seven babies, and attempted murder of seven others, while working as a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in 2015 and 2016.
Those behind the requests want the inquiry to be postponed until the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has finished processing the application it has received to review the Letby case.
The CCRC looks into potential miscarriages of justice and can refer cases back to the Court of Appeal.
On 21 February, the legal team for the former executives who were leading the Countess of Chester when Letby committed her crimes submitted a request to the inquiry for the proceedings to be paused.
The former executives are Antony Chambers, Ian Harvey, Alison Kelly and Susan Hodkinson, who were chief executive, medical director, nursing director and HR director of the trust, respectively. They are all core participants in the inquiry.
Then a couple of days later, on 28 February, politician Sir David Davis – who has been calling for Letby to be given a retrial – submitted a similar request for the inquiry to be paused.
A letter has also been sent to the health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, on the same topic.
This morning, Lady Thirlwall revealed that she had “moments ago” received a letter from Letby’s new firm of solicitors, asking for the inquiry to be suspended.
Protestors demand Letby’s freedom
While the core participants to the Thirlwall Inquiry gathered inside Liverpool Town Hall, protestors assembled outside to demand Letby’s freedom.
The protest was organised by the Partisan Defence Committee, a group associated with socialist group Spartacist League Britain.
The group has compared Letby’s case to that of the Guildford Four or Birmingham Six, other famous miscarriages of justice.
Eibhlin McColgan, member of the group, told Nursing Times that they had been long campaigning against Letby’s convictions.
“We’re taking the outrage that exists on social media over Lucy Letby’s convictions and giving it a voice and putting it on the street,” she said.
It comes as Letby’s new legal team recently made an application for Letby’s case to be reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which looks into suspected and alleged miscarriages of criminal justice.
It followed the publication of a paper, by international paediatric and neonatal experts, claiming that Letby did not murder any babies.
Ms McColgan said she had been contacted by nurses who had expressed their support for Letby but noted that many were afraid to speak up.
She said: “Nurses are very much afraid to speak out because there might be reprisals for them.
“We know that there’s a lot of support for Lucy Letby among nurses and among hospital staff, we’re just not sure if they feel that it’s OK to express it publicly.”
Ella Devereux
She said the inquiry would continue for now and that she had asked the core participants to share their views on a possible suspension as part of their closing submissions.
Today, the inquiry heard from lawyers for the Countess of Chester Hospital, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.
All except the Countess of Chester said they were remaining neutral on the matter of whether the inquiry should be paused.
Andrew Kennedy KC, barrister for the trust, said the Countess of Chester “opposes a postponement of the inquiry’s work”.
He added: “We do not believe that a possibility for referral to the Court of Appeal warrants [a pause to the inquiry].
“Letby’s convictions stand, they have been tested in two unsuccessful appeals – a postponement, which would necessarily be of indeterminate length, is not warranted and it would serve to delay the implementation of recommendations which unhappily the evidence to this inquiry has demonstrated are desperately needed.”
The inquiry heard that the decision to suspend the proceedings was primarily for Mr Streeting to make in consultation with Lady Thirlwall.
In its written closing submission to the inquiry, the CQC set out what the law says in relation to suspending a public inquiry.
The CQC said that the law set a “high bar” for approving a pause in proceedings and that the “mere fact” of parallel investigations taking place into the case was unlikely to pass the test.
The inquiry is due to hear from the remaining core participants – which includes the former executives – tomorrow.
