Sir David Davis: It's 'Highly Probable' Lucy Letby Is Innocent

convicted of killing seven babies in her care and attempting to kill seven others the former neonatal nurse Lucy letby has been given a whole life sentence for her crimes and her request for an appeal has been denied some but some experts have raised concerns about her trials claiming vital evidence may have been misinterpreted an inquiry into the Countess of Chester Hospital and the nhs's handling of the tragedy is set to begin next week but senior conservative MP said David Davis is among those who want the inquiry postponed because of doubts about her conviction Mr Davis says it's highly probable that Lucy letby is innocent and joins us now very good morning to you morning just point out there are the families of 17 infants 14 infants who will be a B at the idea that you think she's innocent because there has been a lengthy trial yeah a thorough investigation of the evidence and a court of justice which has found her guilty yeah and as Ed knows I'm a great defender of jury trials um and at the beginning I thought much the same I mean I feel for the parents I'm mean any way must for parents opposition uh and at the beginning I thought same same she did this she should go to prison forever basically which is which is what her sentence is um but then just I tried to read an article about it in a New Yorker very very very respected woman and and I couldn't get it I was stopped by court order from getting it so I raised it in Parliament now this was all just run of mill stuff I just expect to raise a question get a hold of the article and um and after that I suddenly got a flood of people getting in touch with wasn't the normal conspiracy theorist very often MPS get loads of people running about all sorts of things you'll remember and there's been quite a lot of that around some of that this as well but this wasn't that this was past president s all statistical Society this was uh very very senior neonatal specialist much more senior and authorative than the experts the so-call experts in the case um even last weekend literally just two days ago I had a a a letter from a Nobel Prize winner saying keep going you're you're on to something there's an issue here and I thought what's going on so I went back and I spent most of the summer looking at it uh I haven't been able to get all the data I want to get I haven't to get hold of uh the transcript yet cuz it's very expensive I'll find a way you were quoted a price on trying to get hold of the Court originally said £100,000 which is s shock and uh but actually I understand that the lady who wrote The New Yorker article paid about 91,000 for about half the transcript so the House of Commons Library should provide you as a member of parliament it hasn't um they should but the but but it's wider than that actually Ed I mean the public the reason I raised the question in the house in the first place is transparency of Justice you know we need to know how our courts work the public would be to read it online in this day anywayy of justice is already taken place because Court proceedings are reported all the evidence comes out um between June 2015 June 2016 Lucy letby was on duty those suspicious deaths she wrote notes in her diary saying I am evil she was found guilty by not just one but two juries what is it that you have your doubts about right let's start the court of appeal dismissed her read the so they must believe that what you're saying is wrong that I did read in detail and I just I well I I think they've got that wrong themselves but come back to why and and how uh first off it arose because in that period depending on which month you take 15 or 17 children died in a hospital where you'd expect maybe two or three so a really odd querk so you can understand people how did this happen um and so you then got the table you refer to showing her on duty well that's where the first Challenge from the raw statistical Society experts and so on comes they said no no no no this is a common misapprehension of these things firstly you're not taking on board all of the extra deaths just you picked out half that happened to fit with Lucy leby shift schedule um that's the first thing because there were deaths when she wasn't on duty which were not part of that there were about half the deaths yeah were were when she was not on duty so that's the first problem so and lot some really big deal s in clearly one this weekend U professor John Quigley um uh said this is this is not the way you do this this is this is misleading so that's point one point two was the was the um expert evidence on them you know how they died were these children murdered now bear in mind six out of seven of the children they picked had had a postmortem and the postmortem had said natural causes in essence um I had other very senior doctors say neonatal doctors Specialists current working today uh getting touch one of them sent me an alternative diagnosis for every single death now you know the point about this and and you go through everything and everything you've mentioned including and I went through all the Post-it notes and so on uh which which had had opposite things almost in the same series of Post-it notes you know oh I'm evil you know and and the end of the same Post-It note series uh I've done nothing wrong what's what's why why is this David Davis I put it to you again that hearing um evidence outside of a courtroom is not the same as evid evidence that is interrogated in a courtroom Lucy Le's defense had an opportunity to call the people who are now contacting you and it's their responsibility obviously to to put all of that in front of the the other way around the other way around some of them some of them actually did cont attack the defense I'm told now I don't know what the conversation was between those cuz I written to the defense lawyer I haven't yet had a response I know that will but the but the but the point here is or let's take your point about in court um the way British courts work is they start with the prosecution making the opening speech explaining what the prosecution lawyer thinks uh has happened you know well you know what what what the what the case is it used to be I mean when when I was a Youngster and I used to go to word to court hearings be an hour and a half two hours today this is 2 or 3 days it's a 2 or 3 Day presentation by the time you get end of two or three days you've probably already made up your mind can I ask you this because this really and you can't be challenged really simple final question in our system the jury has to decide Beyond Reasonable Doubt whether or not the offense was committed do you think there is reasonable doubt I think I think there's I think there's more than Reasonable Doubt there are four possible options murder which we've is what the jury decided a statistical artifact which is what all the statisticians think uh or the the hospital wasn't up to it one of the things that wasn't shown the jury as far as I can tell was a a finding by the Royal College of pediatric and child health that actually this hospital had failed because a lack of resources and lack of teach and you are not going to give up on pushing this are you and but the last thing as well is it might well have been an external infection they didn't detect so lots and lots of real what I want I don't I don't want to declared innocent I want the trial looked at Again by the system please keep us in touch with um your work on this and uh you've also agreed to come back and talk to us on other issues in the coming weeks indeed