Sir David Davis to ask DPP to review conduct of police and CPS in Letby case

Conservative former Cabinet minister Sir David Davis has called for a review into the conduct of the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the case of Lucy Letby.

Sir David told ministers on Thursday that he is going to write to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Stephen Parkinson to make his request.

Letby, 35, from Hereford is serving 15 whole life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others between June 2015 and June 2016.

The babies were attacked by various means while Letby worked as a nurse on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

One method was the injection of air into the bloodstream, causing an air embolism that blocked the blood supply and led to sudden and unexpected collapses.

However, concerns have emerged that her conviction was a miscarriage of justice, with Sir David branding it “one of the major injustices of modern times” last year.

Her case is being reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), after judges rejected her bids to challenge her convictions.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Thursday, Sir David claimed Cheshire Police, who investigated the Letby case, ignored or broke rules “time and time again”.

He called for the force to release a series of documents, including investigators’ policy books and decision books, records of identified lines of inquiry and minutes from meetings.

The former Brexit Secretary compared the Letby case to that of Sally Clark, a woman who was found guilty of the murder of her two infant sons, but whose conviction was overturned three years later.

The prosecution had relied on flawed statistical evidence about the likelihood of two babies in an affluent family both dying of sudden infant infant death syndrome (Sids).

Sir David said: “Despite warning signs of the Sally Clark case, we see that Cheshire Police have either ignored or broken the rules, disregarding relevant safeguards time and time again.

“They failed to pursue alternative lines of inquiry.

“They failed to refer the case to the appropriate specialist authorities.

“They failed to conduct proper due diligence on the appointment of key witnesses, expert witnesses.

“They failed to engage with real experts about complex statistical evidence and failed to correctly inform the jury of that fact.

“They failed, on several occasions, to disclose critical material to the defence.

“On the evidence before us, there have been clear, serious departures from statutory guidance and multiple deviations from best professional practice.

“Because of the way this is handled, the police should, and I would recommend them to provide Letby’s defence team with a whole series of documentation.

“I’ll publish a full list online because because of time, but it would include the senior investigating officers’ policy books and decision books, records of identified lines of inquiry, logs kept by functional managers, minutes of all the meetings held, from the team meetings right up to the Gold coordination meetings.

“That would at least start to demonstrate what went wrong here.

“Irrespective of how Cheshire Police respond, I should tell the minister, I shall be writing to the Director of Public Prosecution about these issues and asking him to review the behaviour, both of the CPS and police.”

Policing minister Sarah Jones said that “a meticulous and very lengthy investigation” led to Letby being identified as a suspect and arrested.

She added that “there has been a proper process involving independent assessment by the CPS, trial by a jury, and two appeal processes that has resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of Lucy Letby”.

Ms Jones also told the Commons: “We shouldn’t inadvertently undermine public confidence in the police – that is important and in the criminal justice system and we need to be very careful to avoid implying impropriety where none has actually been established, and I need to put that on record as well.”

She said: “Of course, (Sir David) has said that he is going to be writing to the DPP and he will take that through its course.

“But I just want to end by reminding the House that this country uses due process.

“There has been due process that has been followed in the convictions of Lucy Letby with a trial by jury and upheld on appeal, and I remain confident of that and also the effectiveness of the Cheshire Constabulary.”

Cheshire Police have been contacted for comment.