Peter Hitchens on Lucy Letby – 'I am uncomfortable about this trial' | SpectatorTV

I’m retired child protection detective of 25 years I too was extremely surprised by the verdict and the lack of medical opinion to counteract the evidence from the prosecution In my time I’ve never had a case so serious succeed in mere circumstantial evidences Wether she did it or not there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond doubt clearly

This presenter ... and lots of the posts here ... are missing the point completely. They all say "Were you in court ? The jury were and they heard all the evidence". A jury is comprised of regular people ... plumbers, teachers, lorry drivers, accountants ... not people with medical experience. Therefore, they have no option but to base their verdict on the evidence presented to them by the 'expert witness'. Lots of doctors and scientists have said that his evidence was seriously flawed ... and leading statisticians have ridiculed the spreadsheet that was presented as being worthless. All the stuff about facebook searches and taking notes home etc are red herrings. This case most definitely needs to be re-examined.

I heard there was 23 babies died on the ward, but they only investigated the ones she was on shift for, which was 13. Even if they remove those 13 from the list they are still well above average, so why hasn't the ward been investigated. It's possible to have a serial killer AND negligence on the same ward. It's also possible it was all negligence.

I do wish people would actually listen to what Mr Hitchens said . He said he has no opinion on her guilt or innocence but believes strongly that there wasn’t enough evidence in his eyes to convict and that a retrial or appeal should be granted . I agree with him

Lucy had no choice but to agree that two babies were harmed with insulin because her defence counsel inexplicably agreed before the first trial that this was the case even though there was no credible evidence to support this.The two babies alledgedly harmed are alive and well eight years on.The police were only called in after Lucy won a grievance procedure against doctors and an RCPCH investigation in 2016 cleared Lucy and criticised doctors and consultants for the atrocious conditions on the neonatal unit.

Many years ago someone I worked with was on a jury for a serious case. She was a very intelligent person and was horrified that the jury convicted the guy, with her being the only one standing against the guilty verdict. She said all the evidence was unsafe and speculative but that the others who also thought it unsafe agreed to go with the majority. Its frightening that this can happen.

I have seen a huge number of wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice during my lifetime - these wrongful convictions are NOT uncommon as we have seen time and again…many people serve a very long time indeed before the truth is revealed.

I find Hitchens rare in this emotional age of being able to understand, articulate and maintain a truly reasoned argument, in this case a quite sensibly nuanced one.

I think the verdict should be questioned for sure! It doesn't sit right at all for lots of reasons.

Can’t blame the sacred cow ‘AR NHS. That fame seeking consultant needs looking at.

LL had made 17 complaints about the conditions and poor treatment of babies from doctors on unit. The consultants didn't like her a mere nurse embarrassing them, so they made a counter complaint, which management investigated and unusually actually vindicated Letby, and they made the consultants write a letter of apology to Letby. It seems they wanted rid of her, so they ganged up again against her...I believe they had intended to just force her out, but once the police became involved they couldn't back down, and ot snowballed out of control. Seeing one of the consultants being interviewed on TV after the case, the interviewer stated that the doctor was a hero...he very nearly broke down in tears, I think that was because he realised he eas far from being a hero, if fact he'd just helped put a conscientious young nurse in prison for the rest of her life.

The entire case was based on suspiscion & conviction based on circumstantial evidence. A trial of LL v system. unreasonable doubt, scapegoat verdict.

I was a Nurse for 25 years working in ICU ( Adult not Paediatrics). I followed the trial very closely and was shocked at the conviction.Hitchens is correct about her defence team who time after time missed many opportunities when questioning the prosecution witnesses. If I recall the only witness the defence called was the hospital plumber. A retrial will in time be called.

I fear that as the NHS deteriorates further and more and more patients die we will see more trials of this type as managers try to cover their incompetence. I don't know if she's guilty but we'll see more of this.

Having been a victim of an NHS stitch up myself when I worked in an NHS trust, I can completely concur with what Peter has said. When something goes wrong, often they look for a scapegoat as they're so afraid of the repercussions. I like Peter Hitchens, he says it as it is and agree with him on many things.

Hitchens whistling when he speaks is really annoying me

Peter, I would love if you investigate this case and write a book about it. If she’s innocent, that would help.

Chester hospital is a real crap hole, its also very badly run. Anyone who has been there knows what I mean.

We were told the Fujitsu 'Horizon' IT system installed nationwide by the Post Office was perfect, infallible and could not produce errors and false accounting. Therefore we were told we must believe that all sub-postmaster fraud convictions were 'safe and effective'.

How many babies have died suspisiously since Letby was imprisoned I wonder.