Sailesh Mehta & Tom Davies put the Lucy Letby Inquiry under the spotlight
- Key differences between statutory and non-statutory inquiries.
- Non-statutory inquiries will be used where the main participants are likely to be public officials and therefore there is a high likelihood they will comply.
- Closed proceedings may reassure witnesses and encourage witnesses to be candid in their evidence.
In August 2023, Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies, and attempting to murder six more, at the neo-natal unit of Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. In his sentencing remarks, Goss J described how Letby had targeted extremely vulnerable, premature babies, in particular twins or triplets, and used a variety of methods to kill them in an attempt to deflect suspicion away from herself. After they had died, she searched for the parents of the children she had killed, and falsified records to avoid detection. When her home was searched, confidential records and documents, as a well as a diary, were found which documented the horrific consequences of what she had done. She was sentenced
