The ‘Free Lucy Letby’ protesters frustrated by progress of bid to overturn convictions ...Middle East

Inside a nondescript office building in Birmingham, opposite a nail bar and a branch of Costa coffee, investigators are tasked with reviewing what some believe is the worst miscarriage of justice in British history.

This is the headquarters of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), a government-funded but independent legal watchdog set up in 1997.

It represents the last chance for Lucy Letby, the former neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester hospital currently serving 15 whole life orders at HMP Bronzefield for murdering and harming babies in her care.

Only the CCRC has the power to send her case back to the Court of Appeal after her previous applications were refused. Letby’s legal team submitted an application in February supported by evidence from at least 26 different experts.

But ‘Free Lucy Letby’ supporters are losing patience with the process, leading them to stage a protest outside the offices of the CCRC on Friday.

A group of around 50 people – some health workers, some political activists and others simply members of the public who feel outraged by the case – are suspicious that the CCRC is moving slowly in the hope the publicity surrounding Letby’s convictions will die down.

However, their protests come against a backdrop of criticism from many, including families of Letby’s victims, who say “uninformed” speculation about the case is compounding their trauma.

The CCRC has yet to make any decision on whether to refer the case and says it cannot offer a timeline, following what was an incredibly complex prosecution.

Responding directly to protesters, a spokesperson told The i Paper: “We do not make decisions on the basis of external pressure from anyone.”

‘The wheels turn slowly’

Letby was a 25-year-old recently qualified nurse when her crimes first occurred. She is now 35.

“Supporters will be there to tell the CCRC it’s not good enough to just wait and see what happens… they should act quickly,” said Eibhlin McColgan, organiser of the protest and member of the Partisan Defence Committee (PDC) campaign group.

Acting quickly is not something the CCRC is renowned for.

The organisation says it receives around 1,500 applications each year and has referred only 850 to the Court of Appeal in the past three decades – an average of around 30 per year.

And Letby’s case – involving 14 infants and dating back more than 10 years – is unique.

But McColgan says the case is of such national significance a decision must be expedited.

“I’m aware of the CCRC’s record – it does not look favourable,” she told The i Paper. “The wheels turn slowly [in the justice system].

“People who support Lucy Letby just find it incomprehensible that the CCRC will not act on something that seems so compelling.”

‘Implications beyond Letby’

Cheshire Police has repeatedly defended its investigation into Letby, arguing the evidence against her was “rigourously and fairly tested” by two juries and claiming that much of the criticism they face comes from “ill-informed” commentators.

Families of Letby’s victims have said speculation about her guilt has caused them further pain and suffering, and Lady Justice Thirlwall used her public inquiry to call for an end to online commentary questioning the convictions.

She said: “As far as I am aware it has come entirely from people who were not at the trial. All of this noise has caused enormous additional distress to the families who have already suffered far too much.”

But the case continues to attract regular headlines in the UK and around the world as numerous medical experts, statiticians and MPs cast doubt on the convictions.

Among those joining the CCRC protest is Dr John Thornton, an obstetrician who retired from the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in 2024.

He has written extensively on a personal blog about his concerns with the evidence in Letby’s case.

“It’s in the interests if everybody who wants to save the NHS to get this case examined,” McColgan argues.

“There is a culture of blame in the organisation. Nurses are terrified to speak out.

“Nurses need to be able to speak up and say what they think is going wrong, when they think something is unsafe, to not feel that they are under threat of recrimination.

“It has a much broader implication than just the fact that Lucy Letby is a scapegoat for the failings of the Countess of Chester hospital.”

Cheshire Police and the NHS are not the only organisations with a stake in the handling of the Letby case.

McColgan recognises that supporters such as her are up against institutions who would be highly damaged were the Letby convictions to be overturned.

“It isn’t enough to present evidence that is a wrongful convictions, as we see it.

“What we feel just simply presenting the evidence is not enough – it takes a fight, it takes a struggle to get institutions, like the CCRC, to really act on that evidence.

“I read about Alan Bates getting compensation for the Post Office scandal – he campaigned for 20 years to bring that to light, and in fact it took [ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office] and public exposure to get the wheels turning.

“That’s why we’re protesting – we think that’s unacceptable [for it to take 20 years for Letby] – the evidence is out there.”

Lawyers for the families of Letby’s victims have dismissed the evidence presented to the CCRC – including claims about the reliability of insulin testing used in court – as “full of analytical holes” and “a rehash” of the defence case heard at trial.

Lady Justice Thirwall will publish her official report on the deaths and unexplained collapses of babies at Countess of Chester hospital in early 2026, but has made clear she will not seek to unpick the guilty verdicts reached by two juries, which were upheld by the Court of Appeal.

At the opening of the inquiry, she said the Court of Appeal ruling should have been a “watershed” moment in the case, adding: “I make it absolutely clear, it is not for me as chair of this inquiry to set about reviewing the convictions. The Court of Appeal has done that with a very clear result. The convictions stand.”

A watchdog in crisis

The attempt by Letby supporters to build pressure comes at a time when the CCRC is under more scrutiny than ever before.

In July, former chief executive Karen Kneller resigned following fierce criticism of the organisation’s performance by MPs.

This included the botched handling of the Andrew Malkinson case, a man who was wrongfully convicted of rape in 2004 and served 17 years in prison.

Malkinson first applied to the CCRC for help in 2009 but the organisation did not refer his case to the Court of Appeal on the basis of new DNA evidence until 2023.

Former barrister and victims’ commissioner Vera Baird is now in place as interim chief executive and has ordered a root-and-branch review of how the CCRC operates.

But it remains a small organisation, with only 39 case handlers, including nine who are part-time, according to a recent Freedom of Information request.

The starting salary for a review manager is £40,005, for which the CCRC expects staff with “comprehensive experience of leading complex legal or investigative cases, managing multiple lines of enquiry and different cases with competing deadlines”.

What the CCRC says

A CCRC spokesperson said: “We are aware that there has been a great deal of speculation and commentary surrounding Lucy Letby’s case, much of it from parties with only a partial view of the evidence.

“We ask that everyone remembers the families affected by events at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.

“We have received an application in relation to Ms Letby’s case, and this is being reviewed. Additional submissions continue to be made to us.

“We make impartial, evidence-based decisions, we do not make decisions on the basis of external pressure from anyone.

“At this stage it is not possible to determine how long it will take to review this application. A significant volume of complicated evidence was presented to the court in Ms Letby’s trials.”

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