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Pro-Letby campaigners seek to discredit Welsh doctor whose evidence convicted her

By Mark Mansfield
Lucy Letby

Martin Shipton

Campaigners who believe convicted baby killer Lucy Letby is innocent have held a public meeting at which they strongly criticised the Welsh doctor whose evidence was crucial in convincing jury members of her guilt.

Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more when she worked as a nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester. It is understood that five of the babies were from Wales.

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Consultant paediatrician

Dr Dewi Evans, a retired consultant paediatrician from Carmarthen gave expert evidence at Letby’s trial, the accuracy of which has since been questioned by an international medical panel.

A public meeting in Hereford was organised by the group Nineteen Nurses, which is calling for an independent review of the evidence used to convict Letby, which it says has the support of 279 health professionals.

The meeting was addressed by Lucy Letby’s best friend, who didn’t want to be named. She said: “The media had already fabricated the most abhorrent monster that they could conjure before Lucy was even found guilty. A monster assembled from sensationalist snippets from the trial. They used out of context anecdotes, misremembered historical interactions hazed by the passage of time, and pure conjecture that was pitifully masqueraded as science.

“They had created a completely fictional picture of the world's most horrific serial killer of babies, and they had created that monster in Lucy's image with the face of my friend who I grew up with through those formative years of our lives when you go from child to adolescent to suddenly realising you're a fledgling adult, fresh out of university, starting out on your new career, and thinking about buying your first house. I know who Lucy is as she knows who I am. I know what she is capable of and what is completely alien to her character and nature based on every interaction and experience I have ever shared with Lucy.

Dr Dewi Evans. Photo Peter Byrne/PA Wire

And what the world saw as a story of a killer nurse on the ward unfolding, I knew was in reality one of the worst miscarriages of justice in the UK today. My conscience and everything I knew and lived by told me Lucy was innocent right from the moment of her first arrest. However, the media frenzy around Lucy and anyone connected to her was absolutely terrifying. There was such a relentless outpouring of hate and anger towards her and so by proxy anyone who supported her.

“Just going about our daily lives, we were being approached without warning through every channel by phone, social media, in person, emails, letters, by reporters and journalists, and random strangers who believed Lucy to be guilty. We felt targeted and vulnerable as friends of the monster. During the trial, everyone who knew Lucy was silenced by fear from recrimination if we spoke out in her defense. Fear for our reputations, fear for our livelihoods, fear for the safety of ourselves and our families. People connected to Lucy were categorically told to stay quiet as it would be in theirs and Lucy's best interests.

“And so the media was allowed to run rampant with their killer nurse story. Left unchecked and unchallenged in the absence of any opposition to the mainstream headlines, Lucy had already been found guilty by public opinion.

“But the tide of public opinion has finally turned and it is entirely thanks to individuals like you. Now there is a tsunami of voices demanding that justice is done. For the sake of restoring faith in our legal system, for the sake of protecting every nurse who goes to work each day to face the most difficult situations, for the sake of ensuring an innocent woman does not spend the best years of her life until her final days behind bars, for the sake of justice, we will be heard.”

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Discredited

Dr Roger Norwich, a former locum consultant who lives in Sark, one of the Channel Islands, told the meeting that Dr Evans' testimony had been discredited by the international panel and that Letby’s case should be referred back to the Court of Appeal.

After the meeting, Dr Evans told Nation.Cymru: “The case against Letby is stronger now than it was when she was convicted.

“I had never heard of Roger Norwich until recently, which suggests he hasn’t played a prominent role in cases of this kind. I don’t know what expertise he has.

“The international panel, which claimed none of the babies had been murdered, did not include a pathologist, a haemotologist, a radiologist, an endocrinologist or an obstetrician. All of the panel’s conclusions are wrong.

“Mark McDonald, the barrister now representing and campaigning for Letby has been a barrister for 28 years, but he’s not a KC, which makes him an ageing junior.

“If these people are the best the pro-Letby camp can come up with, it’s pretty pathetic.”

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15 comments

Mhuire Borth

Great article. Yes Lucy is definitely innocent.The science clearly shows this now.

Reply
Drew Anderson

You should read this: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/world/europe/lucy-letby-nurse-murder.html&ved=2ahUKEwj289bkweWNAxWpQEEAHfzfCPoQxfQBKAB6BAgNEAE&usg=AOvVaw17daOBvx4km8JWJZzyPBm2 When the person whose research was used, as basis for many of the convictions, says his findings weren't applied correctly, maybe its time to pause and look again.

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MOI

It also throws up the leading experts on neonatology in the world who have looked at all the cases and who have used their considerable expertise to determine the cause of death and in not one case was it murder, it was all natural along with medical mistakes made by doctors not by Lucy Letby. We also have other leading doctors who have come out in support of her and we have an ex-Supreme Court Judge who is of the view that the conviction is unsafe, as well as leading lawyers. Lets not forget either that an Appeal Court Judge actually wrote to the Trial Judge during the case of Lucy Letby to draw his attention to his comments about Dr Evans in another case, comments which were damning about his abilities as an expert witness.

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Evan Aled Bayton

Dr Evans won’t be the first senior paediatrician to be discredited in a controversial court case. There is a tightrope to walk between experience and obsolescence when giving an opinion and at his stage of retirement he is increasingly looking on the wrong side of it. It is a problem with the English legal system that not enough weight is given to the proper consideration of evidence. The confrontational mechanism of the courts is theatrical and cannot cope with complex specialist evidence. It is increasingly looking as if Lucy Letby is innocent by the legal test of beyond reasonable doubt.

Reply
hdavies15

Were Ms Letby's defence team sleeping on the job ? It seems from the coverage of the case that they didn't engage in a thorough cross examination of the "expert witness". If his evidence was so unsafe how is it that it passed without rigorous challenge ? Was defence counsel just picking up his fee without putting in the effort ?

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Evan Aled Bayton

The prosecution did not prove the case adequately but it is the nature of the jury system that it will convict because of the severity of the charges. The analysis provided by the international panel was of a quality and superiority which far outweighs that of Dr Evans. It is very important to get this right or no one will want to work in critical care because if the risk of being accused of causing a death in a patient dying of natural causes.

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MOI

The world's leading experts on neonatology convened a specialist panel to look at the scientific evidence and they found that nothing showed murder and that all deaths were natural causes. Clearly you either haven't looked at the evidence base or you are just close minded about this. I'm sure that you are also aware that leading Statisticians are of the view that the statistical evidence against her was an absolute joke and that the Police commissioned an actual expert in statistics to look at their statistical claims, she told them very quickly that their statistical methodology was wrong and that their data would be wrong, they then got her to sign an NDA and paid her off - it appears that they didn't inform the defence of this development. If you believe that the world's leading experts in the field are producing 'quasi scientific' data then that says much more about your understanding of science than it does about them. Are you, by any chance, a friend or an associate of Dr Evans and feel that you have to try to rubbish experts in order to defend his role in this prosecution?

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Evan Aled Bayton

That’s the point - cursory trawl, The evidence provided by the international panel is of a quality which far outweighs Dr Evans. The current state is that Lucy Letby has not yet been proved beyond reasonable doubt to have committed the crimes for which she was convicted.

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Michael

I have been involved in Miscarriages of Justice for 26 years and Lucy is definitely innocent. as for Dewi Evans has already been discredited by a high court judge in another case he was involved in stating the he was not an honest expert and sided with the police he is a charlatan and has been further discredited by the 15 leading experts in the world who have come forward and said no murders were committed. This is new evidence that has not been before the court yet and when this evidence does it will clear Lucys Name. watch this space. This article mentions nothing about the new evidence or the fact that Dewi Evans has already in my view been discredited. Not happy with this article it smells of bias in favour of Dewi Evans.

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Michael

Dewi Evans has already been discredited

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William Marsh

Harold Shipman I "cannot comment on" as I have done no research. Other cranks yes there is good evience that vaccines have saved many lives which I am grateful for. (I guess there may be a case for caution re vaccines as there have been tradegies and money. lots of, is involved so drug companies have been known to peddle drugs not fully tested or side affects not noted. But I guess in recent days we have a lot of throwing out the baby with the bathwater situation re this anti vaxers but not followed at all. Flat earthers is a very odd case indeed as daily evidence is available for the earth globe etc. I had one friend infected with the crazy belief. Made me think about the underground Elizabeth line and I looked it up and the engineers had to allow for the earth's curvature re it changing height and depth etc. Now as to court cases and in particular Lucy Letby was easy to access the evidence. Even starting with baby A. Lucy newly on duty that night sdoing handover etc. A team of doctors and nurses all around and nothing from the proecution reenactment how anyone could possibly unseen carry out the actions put forward. A non starter as evidence.

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Antony Wright

Everytime Evans opens his mouth he discredits himself more and more. The absolute arrogance of him to state that experts far more qualified than himself "need to get out more". The man is a first rate moron

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Phil

Unfortunately Evans regards himself as above reproach and an expert far beyond his narrow minded reach. This man has demonstrated again and again an inability to consider the facts in an impartial manner. Sad.

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Charles

Brilliant summary from Lucy’s wonderful lifelong friend! It is truly terrifying how genuine caring nurses can be wrongly accused. I was at the Liverpool demo in March and afterwards met up with a nurse who has become really scared in her daily practice of false accusations. This event of Nineteen Nurses was really enlightening, I am so glad I could make it

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BristolFashion

The problem was not so much Dr Evans, but rather a whole cluster of larger errors & circumstances eg his inclusion on the NCA database in the first place. A decent defence should have been able to make mincemeat out of the man, his status and his weak logic.

Reply

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Replying to Antony Wright Cancel

Everytime Evans opens his mouth he discredits himself more and more. The absolute arrogance of him to state that experts far more qualified than himself "need to get out more". The man is a first rate moron

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