Lucy Letby: My testimony could have changed the trial | UK | News

A witness for the defense in the trial against Lucy Letby has suggested that the outcome might have been different if he had been called to give evidence.

Neonatologist Dr. Michael Hall said he had struggled with the case “for some time” and was “not convinced that the jury had heard the whole truth.”

Dr. Hall was hired as an expert witness by Letby's defense, but he was not called as a witness at the former nurse's trial.

He told The times He said he had challenged some of the prosecution's claims, adding: “I would have given different answers than the prosecution's medical experts and, in some cases, different interpretations.”

“That doesn't mean I have all the answers or that I know Lucy Letby is innocent. There were certainly some events that were difficult to explain.”

He added that he believed the evidence was contestable.

Letby was convicted in August 2023 of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six others between June 2015 and June 2016 in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Her trial at Manchester Crown Court lasted ten months, from October 2022 to August 2023. A retrial was ordered after the jury failed to reach a verdict on one count of attempted murder of a little girl.

The 34-year-old was found guilty last month of attacking the newborn during a night shift in the Countess of Chester's neonatal unit in February 2016.

She was sentenced to 15 life sentences – making her only the fourth woman in British history to be told she would never be released from prison.

Dr Hall told the Times he disagreed with claims about the health of some of the babies before their deaths. He said the prosecution's medical experts had “overstated” the claim that some of the babies had been described as “completely stable” before their collapse.

He said the evidence to support the claim that some babies died from the air injection was relatively weak, The Times reported.

The expert said he did not know why he had not been called. Express.co.uk has contacted the law firm that represented Letby. The Times reports that the lawyers who hired Dr. Hall's advice cannot comment due to attorney-client privilege.

Dr Hall said no one saw Letby do anything and there was little forensic evidence to support the allegations. He added that it appeared the failure to call expert witnesses could have had a “significant impact” on the jury's decision.