Wes Streeting backs Lucy Letby conviction amid growing documentary controversy

Credit: Cheshire Constabulary

By Claudia Tanner

The health secretary has backed the court judgments in the Lucy Letby case amid mounting controversy, firmly stating that the legal system – not public campaigning – must be the final arbiter of justice.

Speaking to LBC News following the release of a high-profile Netflix documentary, The Investigation Of Lucy Letby, Wes Streeting emphasised his continued confidence in the British judicial process.

Asked about a campaign movement and documentary, he said: “As far as I’m concerned, Lucy Letby is a convicted criminal and convicted of some of the most serious crimes imaginable.

“And unless and until that changes, I will continue to support the judgment of the courts unless that judgment is successfully challenged through evidence, not through campaigning.”

He noted that while he is aware of the "active campaign" seeking to overturn the former nurse's conviction, the proper venue for such challenges is the courtroom.

"If people think the courts have got it wrong, they can bring forward their evidence. They can test it and challenge it in the usual way," he added.

Streeting’s comments come at a time of intensifying public debate about the 36-year-old who was sentenced to 15 whole-life terms for murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others between June 2015 and June 2016.

It comes as the inquests into the deaths of five babies Letby was convicted of murdering was set to open on Wednesday.

Letby was twice denied permission to appeal against her convictions in 2024. Now a group of campaigners backing her has submitted reports to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) – an independent body which is responsible for investigating possible miscarriages of justice – to try to get her convictions overturned.

The findings of the Thirlwall Inquiry – set up to examine events at the Countess of Chester Hospital and their implications following the trial – have been delayed and is now due "after Easter 2026".

Claims of miscarriage of justice by medical experts

Despite the finality of her sentencing, the case has refused to fade from the headlines.

The new Netflix series features fresh footage and interviews with law enforcement and legal teams, reigniting public interest in the evidence used during the trials.

When Letby was sentenced, the judge described her as having conducted a "cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children".

A central pillar of the prosecution’s case was a staffing chart showing that Letby was the only nurse on duty during every single suspicious death or collapse on the neonatal unit. While the defense argued this was a coincidence born of her high workload, the prosecution presented it as a mathematical impossibility for any other staff member to be responsible.

Following her arrest, police found numerous handwritten notes in Letby’s home. The most famous included the wording "I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough to care for them", "I am a horrible evil person" and, in capital letters, "I am evil I did this".

The prosecution framed these as confessions. Letby’s defense countered that they were the "anguished outpourings" of a woman suffering from mental distress after being blamed for deaths she didn't cause.

Since the two trials, the integrity of the prosecution's case has been widely challenged from a number of distinguished British and international medical experts, with many believing the 36-year-old is a victim of a monumental miscarriage of justice.

Canadian neonatologist Dr Shoo Lee says again in the documentary that his 1989 academic paper was misused to convict the nurse.

He says skin discolouration has not featured in any reported cases of air embolism in infants where the air has entered the circulation via a vein – which is what the prosecution argues occurred in the Letby case.

Letby’s legal team argue Lee’s research examined the effect of “pulmonary” embolisms – in which oxygen was pumped into the lungs of babies on ventilation – and therefore should not be used to support claims that babies had air injected into their veins.

In February 2025, Dr Lee led a panel of 14 international neonatologists and paediatric specialists, assembled by Lucy Letby’s legal team, who analysed 17 cases from the trial and concluded that "no medical evidence" supported the convictions, describing the findings as a systemic issue involving poor care rather than criminal wrongdoing.

One of the UK’s most eminent neonatologists, Professor Neena Modi, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, was also on the panel.

In newly published research, Dr Lee found no evidence of any skin discoloration in babies who accidentally had air injected into the veins.

The panel concluded that some of the Countess of Chester Hospital staff were caring for the most critically ill or premature babies in a unit that was only meant to treat infants with lesser needs.

It’s a debate that is set to roll on for some time. Should the commission find a real possibility that the convictions could be quashed, it can refer the case back to the Court of Appeal – a process that typically takes years for the case to reach a courtroom.

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