Bombshell as Lucy Letby Doctor admits guilt over possible 'miscarriage of justice'
Dr John Gibbs was a consultant paediatrician working at the Countess of Chester Hospital when the baby deaths occurred and suspicion grew around Letty’s involvement.
A doctor at the centre of the Lucy Letby case has admitted for the first time the guilty court verdict against her could be wrong. Dr John Gibbs was a consultant paediatrician working at the Countess of Chester Hospital when the baby deaths occurred and suspicion grew around Letty’s involvement.
He has now retired but gave a rare interview to the new Netflix documentary on Letby.
He concludes his interview by saying: “I live with two guilts, guilt we let the babies down and tiny, tiny, tiny guilt did we get the wrong person? Just in case. I don't think there was a miscarriage of justice, but you worry that no one actually saw her do it.”
The comment from Gibbs is a rare sign from those involved in the prosecution that a mistake could have been made.
But he also speaks about the moment they realised something with very wrong at the Countess of Chester Hospital, and that Letby seemed the most likely problem.
Letby is serving 15 whole-life jail terms for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others between June 2015 and June 2016.
Gibbs said: “Lucy was a quiet nurse. She seemed conscientious, she seemed keen, she seemed competent as far as I could tell. There was nothing about her that made her stand out to me. But by the end of 2015 all of us consultants were becoming concerned about so many unusual deaths on the unit.
“But when a staffing review was done, one common factor emerged. There was only one person was on duty for all of those deaths, and it was Lucy Letby. I wasn't sure what to make of that at first, is it pure coincidence, or is she causing harm?
“So we decided to discuss this with the neonatal nurse manager. But she was absolutely adamant that Lucy Letby was a competent, dedicated nurse, and it was unthinkable that there should be any suggestion she might be harming patients.
“Unfortunately, we continued to have more deaths occurring at night, and Lucy Letby have been on duty for all those deaths, so the senior managers decided eventually that Lucy Letby should be moved on to day duty. The deaths at night and the collapses at night stopped, but shockingly, they started to occur during the day.
“At that stage, we as the consultant body, realised that we could not delay any further. Lucy Letby had to be removed from the neonatal unit.”
Letty’s new defence barrister Mark McDonald insists there was “no motive” for her to commit these crimes and also says the hospital was in crisis when she worked there.
He insists: “Nurses were crying at the end of this shift because of the stress, because of them being overworked, because of having so many babies on the unit and not having the staff or the resources to run it.”
But elsewhere in the film, Cheshire Police remain certain they have prosecuted the right person.
Expert witness Dr Dewi Evans, who contributed his medical opinion into how the babies died during the court case, also maintained Letby was a child killer.
He says the fact that several babies were seemingly killed by insulin being put into their system, is solid evidence that Letby was involved.
In police questioning she agreed that insulin had been administered and it was at a time when she was on duty. She also had access to the fridge which contained nutrition bags and insulin.
Evans tells the film: “the jury had evidence of a baby who had been deliberately poisoned with some substance. To use the monacular, it was a smoking gun.”
* The Investigation Of Lucy Letby' will be released globally on Netflix on February 4.
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on
TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.
