The lawyer of convicted baby killer Lucy Letby claims he now has evidence which could clear her name. 

Her barrister Mark McDonald said he has 26 separate experts and 1,000 pages of fresh evidence to back up his claim. 

The barrister says he has now passed on this evidence to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in a hope of getting former neonatal nurse Letby released. 

Appearing on Good Morning Britain, he said: ‘I was instructed a year ago this week.

‘There is obviously a concern here among experts that something is seriously wrong.

‘A year ago when I went to see her she had lost everything and she said no one believed her, she was a broken woman.

‘Now seeing these experts saying no crime was committed she has hope.’ 

Since she was jailed for killing seven babies in a year-long reign of terror that shocked the nation, there has been a furious debate over whether the evidence against her was flawed, with a growing body of supporters arguing she is innocent. 

Lucy Letby was immediately given ‘enhanced’ prisoner status when she arrived at HMP Bronzefield

Letby is pictured while being arrested at home in Chester on July 3, 2018

Earlier this year, medical experts reviewing her convictions claimed they ‘did not find any murders’ amid questions over evidence used to convict the child serial killer. 

Letby, 35 – who is following developments from her cell at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey – is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was found guilty of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims. 

Her trial at Manchester Crown Court had heard the babies were attacked between 2015 and 2016 while she worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit.

One method was injecting air into the bloodstream which was said to have caused an air embolism that blocked blood supply and led to sudden and unexpected collapses.

The court heard evidence from experts that Letby used various other ways to harm babies, including injecting air into the stomach, overfeeding with milk, physical assaults and poisoning with insulin. And she wrote a note saying: ‘I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them.’

But in July, analysis conducted by a ‘blue riband committee’ of 14 neonatalogists -experts in care of newborn babies – was presented at a press conference in London.

Dr Shoo Lee, a retired top neonatal medical expert, co-authored a 1989 academic text on air embolisms in babies – which featured prominently in Letby’s ten-month trial.

He chaired a panel of experts who compiled an ‘impartial evidence-based report’ and said their thoughts were with the families of the babies who died – but also claimed the prosecution misinterpreted his findings on skin discolouration.

Dr Lee told the packed press conference: ‘Death or injury of all the affected infants were due either to natural causes or to errors in medical care. There were serious problems related to medical care of patients at this hospital.

In an interview, Letby’s barrister Mark McDonald said he has 26 separate experts and 1,000 pages of fresh evidence to back up his claim

‘There were problems related to teamwork and interdisciplinary collaboration at the Countess of Chester Neonatal Unit. In summary, ladies and gentlemen, we did not find any murders. In all cases, death or injury were due to natural causes or just bad medical care. Lucy was charged with seven murders and seven attempted murders.

‘In our opinion, the medical opinion, the medical evidence doesn’t support murder in any of these babies, just natural causes and bad medical care. Our full report will go to Lucy’s barrister later this month and then it will be up to him and the courts to decide what next to do.’

Letby’s lawyer Mr McDonald said the revelations ‘demolished’ the case against her, adding: ‘Lucy Letby was convicted because of medical evidence presented to the jury. That, today, has been demolished.’

He claimed her conviction was ‘unsafe’ and should be referred back to the Court of Appeal, saying: ‘She has hope, that’s all I can say.’

Since being jailed, Letby has been given a cleaning job and was fast-tracked to enhanced prisoner status, which allows her to have extra cash to spend on sweets.

Her privileged status allows her a visit every week – twice as many as standard prisoners, a source said. 

However, the baby killer is reportedly under 24-hour guard after inmates ruthlessly taunted her over her case’s coverage in the press. 

It comes amid claims Letby has become ‘deluded’ about winning her freedom after a campaign questioning her guilt continues to build momentum. 

The Mail previously revealed detectives investigating her case had passed a file of evidence to prosecutors alleging she murdered and harmed more babies.   

It’s understood there are more than a dozen potential offences included in the dossier, which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed would be examined to see whether she should be charged with more crimes.

The process is expected to take weeks and involve consultation with the most senior legal brains in the country, including Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions and Lord Richard Hermer KC, the Attorney General.

Police are examining 4,000 babies Letby cared for between January 2012 and July 2016

The news emerged after Cheshire Police confirmed it had arrested three senior executives who worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital, where Letby carried out her 13-month killing spree, on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

The unnamed managers were quizzed at separate police stations in Cheshire in July for several hours before being bailed pending further enquiries.

Their arrests form part of Cheshire Constabulary’s parallel investigation into corporate manslaughter at the NHS Trust, but it is understood that prosecutors have not yet been asked to offer advice in connection with that second inquiry.

In December, Cheshire police confirmed the serial killer had been quizzed in prison in connection with more murders and attempted murders at both the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where she underwent two periods of training.

As part of their ongoing inquiry, codenamed Operation Hummingbird, detectives have been examining the cases of 4,000 infants she cared for during the ‘footprint’ of her nursing career, which dates back to January 2012, and includes two student placements she undertook at the Liverpool Trust, in 2012 and 2015.

However, the handing over of evidence to the CPS is a significant milestone in their investigation.

A spokesman for the CPS said: ‘We can confirm that we have received a full file of evidence from Cheshire Constabulary asking us to consider further allegations in relation to deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

‘We will now carefully consider the evidence to determine whether any further criminal charges should be brought.

‘As always, we will make that decision independently, based on the evidence and in line with our legal test.’

According to an independent report, leaked to the Mail’s Trial+ podcast, Letby was on duty, or had been working the shift prior, for 12 of 13 baby deaths that occurred at the Countess between April 2015 and July 2016.

In November, Dr Stephen Brearey, the senior paediatrician on the hospital’s neo-natal unit, told the public inquiry investigating Letby’s crimes that he believed she ‘likely’ murdered or attacked more babies before she killed her first victim, a premature twin boy known as Baby A, in June 2015.

He said, looking back, he now had suspicions about other deaths and collapses, which at the time staff believed were due to natural causes.

Dr Rachel Lambie, who worked as a registrar at the Countess, also told the Thirlwall Inquiry that around a fortnight before Baby A died another ‘very, very unusual event’ occurred on the ward. Although she didn’t go into detail, the medic confirmed she has since given a statement to detectives about the incident.

The Women and Children’s building, which houses the neo-natal unit, where Letby committed her crimes

During the hearings, at Liverpool Town Hall, it also emerged that babies’ breathing tubes became dislodged on 40 per cent of shifts Letby worked at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, between October and December 2012, and January and February 2015.

According to the BBC, babies suffered potentially life-threatening incidents on almost a third of the 33 shifts she was on duty while training at the Trust.

In one case, from November 2012, a baby boy she was caring for collapsed and water was later discovered in his breathing tube, which experts say is highly irregular.

Dr Dewi Evans, the former lead prosecution witness at Letby’s original trial, also previously told the Mail he had concerns over the deaths of at least three children and the collapses of as many as 15 more, including one potentially poisoned with insulin, all of which were not included on the original indictment.

He said he had suspicions that Letby experimented with moving babies’ breathing tubes as a method of causing harm before she began injecting air into their bloodstreams, or into their tummies via their nasal feeding tubes in a bid to kill.

‘One thing we can be reasonably sure of is that Lucy Letby did not turn up to work one day and decide to inject a baby with air into their bloodstream,’ Dr Evans said. ‘I think the modus operandi evolved over time and I think that prior to air embolus tube displacement was probably something that she did.’