It cost almost £19 million, heard evidence over six months and analyzed thousands of documents, but it failed to end the toxic debate that still rages and divides the nation. The Thirlwall Inquiry was not tasked with examining the guilt of nurse killer Lucy Letby, but for many it remains a question being asked by lawyers, commentators and even MPs.
While the investigation will prove that Letby’s killing spree could have been stopped sooner, some will not be happy until she is given an appeal hearing that puts the question of her guilt to rest once and for all. Sitting at Manchester Crown Court for her trial and speaking to detectives, victims’ relatives, Letby’s friends, and legal and medical experts, I have yet to find a general consensus on two burning key questions: “Do you think she did it – and what motivated her to kill?”
At 36, Lethby is the most prolific child killer in British legal history.
She is serving 15 life sentences for the murders of seven children and the attempted murders of seven more, including one child she tried to kill twice.
Her trial showed that before her arrest in July 2018, she led an unremarkable life. Her three-bedroom home in Chester was filled with teddy bears, Disney decorations and a framed slogan reading “Leave glitter wherever you go.”
Unusually for a serial, cold-blooded child killer, her bed was covered with a duvet with a “Sweet Dreams” theme, and four cuddly toys – Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, a bunny and a light brown teddy bear – were laid out on the bed pillow. The place settings on her dining table were decorated with hearts.
In her kitchen were photos of her cousins and two godchildren, work photos of her in her robe, and a thank you card written to “Aunt Lucy” from her godchildren after Christmas.
At one stage of the trial, Letby cried as jurors saw pictures of her jewelry, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and pictures of her cats Tigger and Smudge.
Since her arrest in 2018, her parents Susan and John Letby have supported her loyally, never believing she was capable of such horrors.
Since her sentencing, the question of her guilt has not only been widely debated in the media and in homes across the country, but medical, legal experts and members of Parliament have rallied behind her banner to deny that the woman whom detectives describe as a “beige” boring figure could ever have been the sinister and calculating angel of death.
Letby denied deliberately introducing air into babies, force-feeding milk to other children and poisoning two babies with insulin, but two different juries did not believe her.
In 2023, she was found guilty of seven murders and six attempted murders, and was acquitted of two counts of attempted murder.
The jury deadlocked on six more counts, so after a retrial in July 2024, she was found guilty of another count of attempted murder.
Many had hoped that Lady Justice Thirlwall’s public inquiry would look into the question of Lethby’s guilt, but she ruled that out from the outset, declaring from the outset: “It is not the actions of Lucy Letby that I am examining.”
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is the only body with the power to refer Lethby’s case back to the Court of Appeal and they are still reviewing the submissions.
Sir David Davis MP asked that the Thirlwall inquiry be delayed until the CCRC had decided on a possible appeal, arguing that the inquiry “based on the presumption that Lucy Letby’s conviction is safe when there are now many credible voices questioning that conviction will only undermine the (inquiry’s) findings.”
Richard Scorer, representing three of the victim’s families, said the fact that Letby’s conviction stood was crucial, adding: “That is the legal reality and the uproar over her convictions does not change that.”
But despite the findings of this investigation into how Lethby was allowed to kill at the Countess of Chester Hospital, the question of whether she actually did it remains lingering.