The former boss of the hospital where Lucy Lebby worked has been accused of “opportunistically” asking for a halt of public investigation into her crimes in order to hide her “devastating” failure.
A former executive at the Countess of Chester Hospital said on Tuesday that she believed there was “real potential.”
However, the families of the imprisoned nurse victim said senior management was trying to avoid responsibility for “many mistakes.”
“The application to suspend the investigation is, in part, an attempt to control the story and on the executive side to avoid criticism,” said Richard Baker KC, who represents the parents of 12 babies.
Letby, 35, serves 15 full biological sentences after being convicted of killing seven babies and attempting to kill seven more at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwestern England. The former nurse, who has always protested her innocence, has lost two attempts to overturn her beliefs in the Court of Appeal.
The Criminal Case Review Board (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, is investigating fresh material submitted by various experts last month on behalf of Letby.
Inquiry Chair Mrs Justice Zarwall will release her final report in the fall after receiving evidence from hundreds of witnesses.
Letby and the former executive attorney argued that it was wrong for the judge to continue her report after an international panel of experts found no evidence that she had murdered or hurt a toddler accused of attacking her.
Kate Blackwell, a former leader's barrister, said concerns about Lebby's guilt were “dismissed as noise” by Zarwall's investigation, but now they have to be addressed.
She said the judge “must be carefully considered before preparing a report based on the basis of Lucy Letby's conviction,” and “the growing concern expressed by world-class experts puts it in the real danger of disbanding that bedrock onto a sand-shift beach.”
The former bosses, including the hospital's former chief executive Tony Chambers and former medical director Ian Harvey, are expected to face criticism from Zarwall for handling the lawsuit.
In a closing statement, the final hearing released Tuesday, the former executive said there was a “real possibility” that the deaths should have “alternative explanations” and that the judge's final report should be suspended or significantly reduced to the outcome of Lebby's appeal.
Baker said for the family this was a “naked attempt to avoid criticism by the enforcer” and should be dismissed.
He said Letby's new defense team had held a “smooth media campaign” to promote her claims of innocence. He said the parents of the dead baby don't want their lives to become “a sideshow within the scary media circus.”
“There is nothing surprising or new about the evidence being presented for all the bells and whistles that may be attached to the press conference,” Baker added. “The theory may have changed, but this is hardly a new evidence.”
Peter SkeletonKC said that for the family of seven babies, executives were unable to ensure patient safety and “potentially trying to suspend investigation work” and that executives were “devastating.”
“The new and untreated evidence was found to be old and full of analytical flaws, so it was presented in a big fanfare,” he told the investigation, explaining the new medical hypothesis as being based on a “vulnerable tower of speculation.”
Blackwell denied that for executives the attempt to stop the investigation represented “aversion of accountability.”
Even if Lettby was innocent to hurting the baby, she said, it wouldn't “require” the former boss. “There was a serious problem affecting the Countess of Chester Hospital at a related period, which led to the death of the baby in the newborn unit, but that shouldn't have happened,” she said.
“If Lucy Lett's beliefs are ultimately beaten, senior management will of course have questions left. But these questions are based on completely different factual scenarios.”
She said the former executive should have contacted police nearly a year ago, and “they should have been more open, they should have been more open,” the baby's family.
