When Dr. Shoo Lee, one of Canada’s most renowned neonatologists, published an academic paper in 1989, he could not have foreseen that it would eventually contribute to the conviction of a British nurse for murder. However, over three decades later, this exact scenario unfolded.

Lucy Letby, a former nurse in a neonatal unit in northern England, was found guilty in two trials in 2023 and 2024 of murdering or attempting to murder 14 babies under her care and sentenced to life in prison. The prosecution, during the trials, relied on Dr. Lee’s 1989 paper about a rare complication in newborns, pulmonary vascular air embolism, to argue that Ms. Letby had intentionally injected air into the veins of seven of her victims.

The problem? The expert witness had misunderstood Dr. Lee’s work. Dr. Lee, upon reviewing Ms. Letby’s case, gathered a team of 14 specialists from around the world to assess the clinical evidence. Their findings, released in February 2025, revealed that there was no medical evidence supporting the claim of malfeasance causing death or injury to any of the babies Ms. Letby was accused of harming.

“If there’s no malfeasance, there’s no murder. If there’s no murder, there’s no murderer,” Dr. Lee stated. Since Ms. Letby has exhausted her avenues to appeal in the courts, her only remaining hope lies with the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), a small, independent body that investigates possible miscarriages of justice.

Dr. Lee, who retired to a farm in rural Alberta in 2021, came across Ms. Letby’s case after being contacted by her lawyer and initially knew very little about it. He reviewed the medical evidence and discovered that the expert witness’s interpretation of his research was incorrect. This realization led him to offer his services in Ms. Letby’s request for an appeal, but the court denied it, stating his testimony should have been introduced at trial.

Hence, Dr. Lee assembled a team of neonatal specialists to review the case, including renowned experts from leading institutions. Their panel’s review, conducted over four months, found that in all cases, the babies’ deaths or injuries were due to natural causes or poor medical care rather than intentional harm by Ms. Letby.

The panel also concluded that some hospital staff were tasked with caring for critically ill or premature babies in a unit that was not adequately equipped to handle such cases, leading to potential gaps in care and adverse outcomes.

Despite concerns voiced by numerous medical and statistical experts about the evidence, Dr. Dewi Evans, the prosecution’s lead expert witness, has publicly defended his testimony, and the Countess of Chester Hospital, where the incidents occurred, is focusing on ongoing investigations and a government-led public inquiry.

Mark McDonald, Ms. Letby’s current lawyer, plans to include Dr. Lee’s expert report in his application to the CCRC, which can refer cases back to the Court of Appeal. The commission has stated it has received and is assessing the preliminary application related to Ms. Letby’s case.

However, the response to Dr. Lee’s findings has been mixed. Some families of the victims have condemned the expert panel’s assessment, and there have been calls for remembering the families affected by the tragic events. Dr. Lee emphasizes that families inherently seek the truth about their children’s deaths, regardless of the impact

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/world/europe/lucy-letby-nurse-murder.html