A senior Conservative MP has called on police to open a formal perjury investigation into the testimony of a consultant whose evidence helped convict Lucy Letby.
Sir David Davis last week wrote to the chief constable of Cheshire Constabulary to make a formal complaint against Dr Ravi Jayaram, a consultant paediatrician at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
“I believe there is a compelling public interest in determining whether perjury may have been committed”
David Davis
The complaint relates to an email sent by Dr Jayaram in 2017 regarding the attempted murder of Baby K by Letby.
The former neonatal nurse was convicted and sentenced for this crime during a retrial last year at Manchester Crown Court.
She is currently serving multiple life sentences for the murders of seven babies and attempted murders of seven others between 2015 and 2016 while working as a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Baby K was born at the Countess of Chester Hospital at 2.12am on 17 February 2016 at just 25 weeks gestation and she was placed on ventilation to help her breathe.
Later that day she was transferred to Arrowe Park Hospital, part of Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, but died in her parents’ arms on 20 February 2016.
During the retrial, the prosecution alleged that Letby attempted to kill Baby K by dislodging her breathing tube.
The jury heard evidence from Dr Jayaram that he found Letby standing by Baby K’s cot and doing nothing as the child’s condition was rapidly deteriorating.
They heard that the neonatal nurse had not raised an alarm or called for assistance.
As such, the prosecution argued that the consultant paediatrician had caught Letby “virtually red-handed”.
However, an email allegedly sent in 2017 by Dr Jayaram to senior members of staff at the Countess of Chester Hospital appears to directly contradict this evidence, and suggests that Letby had, in fact, called him for help.
The email, obtained by the UnHerd website and seen by Nursing Times, said: “Staff nurse Letby [was] at incubator and called Dr Jayaram to inform of low saturations.”
It also suggested that Baby K’s frailty was the cause of death. The email stated: “Baby subsequently deteriorated and eventually died, but events around this would fit with explainable events associated with extreme prematurity.”
This is despite Dr Jayaram telling the police in 2017 that he was “concerned that [the baby’s breathing tube] may not have dislodged by accident”.
In a letter sent last week to Cheshire Constabulary’s chief constable Mark Roberts, Sir David argued that there was a “clear and concerning discrepancy between Jayaram’s sworn evidence and contemporaneous documents of the events”.
He claimed that the email by Dr Jayaram “would have been of substantial relevance to Ms Letby’s defence in the retrial” but it was not disclosed by the police to her defence until after she was convicted, in September 2024.
Sir David, who earlier this year called for a retrial of Letby in parliament, further alleged that it had also been omitted from the material provided to the Crown Prosecution Service “and was not discussed during the Thirlwall Inquiry”, which has been examining the events at the hospital.
David Davis
His letter said: “The implications of this are serious. The jury in her retrial may have reached its verdict on the basis of misleading or incomplete testimony.
“Given that Dr Jayaram’s statements formed a critical part of the prosecution’s case, I believe there is a compelling public interest in determining whether perjury may have been committed.”
Due to the concerns about the conflicting testimony, Sir David set out in the letter that he wished to make “a formal complaint against Dr Jayaram”.
He added: “Cheshire Constabulary now has a clear obligation to launch a formal perjury investigation into Dr Jayaram’s testimony, or alternatively, confirm whether such an investigation is already underway.
“This matter goes beyond the outcome of a single trial; it touches on public confidence in the integrity of our criminal justice system, in particular the requirement to tell the truth under oath in court and the duty of full and fair disclosure during a prosecution.”
When asked to comment, Cheshire Constabulary said Mr Roberts had received the letter and that “he will be responding in due course addressing all the concerns raised”.
It comes amid rising criticism of the investigation into the Letby case, the trial process and the legitimacy of expert witnesses.
Earlier this month, some 400 healthcare workers, including nurses, called for a review of the former neonatal nurse’s convictions.
Meanwhile, Letby’s legal team has asked the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to review her case and send it back to the Court of Appeal for reconsideration.
It follows a report published in February by a panel of 14 international paediatric and neonatal experts, which claimed there was “no medical evidence to support malfeasance” in any of the cases heard at Letby’s trial.
Dr Jayaram was contacted for comment.
