The prosecution’s star witness in the Lucy Letby trial is at the center of fresh controversy after it emerged a judge in a previous case had dismissed his evidence as ‘worthless’.
Dewi Evans’ testimony was central to the nurse’s conviction last year for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others, but the reliability of his evidence is being questioned by a growing number of leading experts.
Earlier this month, following an investigation on Radio 4, Dr Evans changed his mind about how Mrs Letby allegedly murdered one of her victims after discovering the nurse was not even at the hospital where the baby died from a seemingly damning X-ray. was taken.
He no longer claims that air was forced into the baby’s stomach, but now says Letby injected air into the baby’s bloodstream.
Lucy Letby was convicted of killing babies at the hospital where she worked as a neonatal nurse
The testimony of Dewi Evans (pictured) was central to the nurse’s conviction last year for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others
Letby is serving a life sentence after being convicted of the crimes
Last week, judges rejected Letby’s request to appeal her conviction at a retrial in July on one count of attempted murder, which was the last option explored before a new legal team began working on her case.
As part of the new steps, Letby’s attorneys plan to Dr. Evans in the spotlight – including the fact that a judge declared in December 2022 that his report in a case involving parents’ access to their children ‘made no effort to provide a balanced view’. ‘.
Judge Lord Justice Jackson of the Court of Appeal described his evidence as ‘worthless’ and said: ‘He either knows what his professional colleagues have concluded and is ignoring it, or he has taken no steps to inform himself of their views.
‘Both approaches amount to a breach of proper professional conduct. No attempt has been made to utilize the full range of medical information or the powerful conflicting indicators. Instead, the report has the hallmarks of an exercise in ‘elaborating an explanation’ that relieves the burden on the applicants.
‘It ends with tendentious and biased expressions of opinion that are beyond Dr. Evans and which have no place in a reputable expert report.’
John and Susan Letby, parents of Lucy Letby, arrive at Manchester Crown Court for their daughters’ murder trial in 2022
Screen capture taken from body worn camera footage released by Cheshire Constabulary of Lucy Letby’s arrest
Court artist’s drawing of Lucy Letby giving evidence at her trial at Manchester Crown Court,
Dr. Evans said he was “more than happy” to stand by his report. He insisted: “I have prepared dozens of reports for the Family Court.
‘Because of my record as a witness, there is a great demand for opinions. For me this is a one-off.’
Experts have increasingly questioned how Letby was convicted based on only circumstantial evidence and disputed statistical probabilities. The prosecutor subsequently admitted that the evidence presented at trial was untrue.
On Friday, the New York Times became the latest global media outlet to cast doubt on the safety of her conviction, after questions were first raised in a 13,000-word article in the New Yorker in May.
Since then, dozens of statisticians and medical experts have expressed concerns about the prosecution case.
A total of 24 experts in statistics, forensic science and neonatology have written to the UK government highlighting a series of worrying anomalies, including the fact that a number of baby deaths on the unit while Letby was not present were excluded from the analysis of the prosecutor. .
Supporters of ex-nurse Lucy Letby demonstrate outside the High Court in London during her hearing in April
An aerial view of the Countess of Chester Hospital where Lucy Letby worked
Mugshot released by Cheshire Constabulary of child serial killer Lucy Letby