Among the 50 or so protesters who gathered outside the Thirwall public inquiry into Lucy Letby’s case on Monday was an NHS worker who asked not to be identified.
“It makes me feel ill just thinking about it,” she said.
She is talking about the prosecution of Letby, the former neonatal nurse who is currently serving 15 whole life terms for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder a further seven while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
The protesters did not have any personal connection to the case but had chosen to attend a “Free Lucy Letby” demonstration outside Liverpool Town Hall.
Inside, a public inquiry is about to conclude after several months of examination of Letby’s crimes – principally whether she could, and should, have been caught sooner.
This follows two separate trials at which juries – who heard weeks of detailed evidence – found Letby guilty of deliberately harming babies.
Nevertheless, the case continues to attract intense interest, particularly from a dedicated band of supporters, including the MP David Davis, who believe Letby is the victim of a major miscarriage of justice.
Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others (Photo: Cheshire Constabulary/AFP)Chairperson Lady Justice Thirlwall revealed this week she has received a letter from Letby’s legal team asking for the inquiry to be paused because of new evidence they have gathered from a panel of experts which calls into question the prosecution.
It is currently being considered by the miscarriages of justice watchdog the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).
Legal representatives for members of the senior management at the Countess of Chester have also asked for the inquiry to be paused.
What happens next remains unclear – Lady Justice has asked for all interested parties to respond to the requests and will issue a response in due course.
For those who have travelled from all over the country and beyond to attend the protest in Liverpool, there is only one acceptable outcome – Letby must be exonerated.
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Holding a “Free Lucy Letby” placard, Mark Mayes, a musician and poet aged 59, says he had never been to a protest before in his life but felt compelled to travel from Somerset to be there.
He has no medical background but has set up a YouTube channel discussing the case which has proved hugely popular – another protester approached Mr Mayes and described him as “famous”.
Asked what drew him to the Letby case, Mr Mayes said: “It feels really personal, it really grabbed me, emotionally. Even before I found out a lot of the detail around it… I felt emotionally a sense of horror about what they’ve done.
“Going back to the first trial, you can just see how this sort of scapegoating can happen in organisations. I was watching a video on YouTube about the NHS – people have got to realise these kinds of things happen to people.”
Chair of the independent inquiry, senior appeal court judge Kate Thirlwall (Photo: Peter Byrne/Pool/ AFP)As with many modern movements, much of the “Free Lucy Letby” campaign has happened online. Critics have used platforms such as X to discuss and share specific evidence from a case which, by any measure, is incredibly complex.
Commentary on social media has also been free of the tight reporting restrictions which has restricted what can be published by mainstream news organisations.
“It’s hard to keep it all in your head,” Mr Mayes said. “I’ve encountered thousands of people over the last couple of years, people can sense the injustice. Once something clicks you think, ‘What have they done to this poor young woman?’
“It’s such a delicate matter, it’s such a traumatic matter… people feel they’ve been essentially lied to.”
Those who attended the protest do not believe they are conspiracy theorists.
Body-worn camera footage issued by Cheshire Constabulary of the arrest of Lucy Letby (Photo: Cheshire Constabulary/PA)Among them was Janet Cox, a former friend of Letby’s who worked with her at the Countess of Chester and who has maintained her belief in Letby’s innocence throughout the prosecution.
At least two other NHS workers were said to be present and a letter was read out on behalf of retired and registered nurses in support of overturning the convictions.
“This is a tiny sample of the actual support that Lucy Letby has, particularly in the health sector,” said Kate Klein, who helped organise the protest via the Partisan Defence Committee, which describes itself as “class struggle” organisation.
“There’s a lot of nurses who support her but are very scared to show their faces because they could be next.
“The NHS is in a dire state, everybody knows that, like the Countess of Chester where Lucy worked. A lot of it is underfunded, understaffed, under-resourced and bad things happen.”
Klein, an American who travelled to Liverpool from her home in London, said she believed that people have been drawn to support the Letby campaign because they feel she has been unfairly vilified.
“I think it’s because of the monstrosity of the case, the way she was paraded as a baby killer,” she said. “And then when you look to the actual evidence, that has been shredded by [Letby’s new lawyer] Mark McDonald, you see what a massive fit-up it was.
“Even beyond the healthcare sector, we know what happens to anyone who sticks their head above the parapet.”
All those approached by The i Paper at the Letby protest conveyed a wider sense of distrust in the systems of power in the UK and sympathy with the idea of being unfairly persecuted.
After listening to speeches for around an hour, the demonstration concluded with a performance of Liverpool football club’s anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.
“There is a kind of comradeship, people who have experiences who’ve been mistreated, bullied at work,” said Mr Mayes.
“There’s some kind of shared perspective, obviously it’s nowhere near to the level of being totally destroyed [like Letby]. They can relate to being ganged up on, misrepresented, being unfairly treated.
“We’re not going away.”
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