A fundraiser has been launched to appeal serial killer Lucy Letby’s conviction as a campaigner claims that the nurse’s trial for her sickening crimes ‘may represent one of the greatest miscarriages of justice ever’.
Letby, 33, was convicted of murdering seven babies in her care at the Countess of Chester Hospital and trying to kill six others over a yearlong period.
The former neonatal nurse is Britain’s most prolific child serial killer of modern times and was sentenced to an unprecedented 14 whole life orders at the end of her trial on Monday.
Now a campaign led by Sarrita Adams, a scientific consultant for biotech startups in California, is working to ‘aid in an upcoming appeal’. Letby has the right to appeal her sentence, however, her legal team has not revealed if they plan to do so. It is also rare that an appeal of a whole life order is successful.
Ms Adams and her campaigners are trying to gain support for a project named Science on Trial, which touts a mission of securing a new trial for Letby. The campaign criticises the medical evidence that was presented during her trial and claims to be working with ‘scientists, lawyers, and activists’ to aid in an appeal for Letby, The Telegraph reported.
‘Lucy Letby’s trial may represent the greatest miscarriage of justice that the UK has witnessed,’ Ms Adams said in a statement on the fundraising page. ‘Through fundraising, researching, and legal assistance, we aim to ensure that Lucy Letby can have a fair trial where evidence is reliable.’
The campaign is not open to donations, but the newspaper reports there is a ‘coming soon’ notice on the donate button.
Ms. Adams, who describes herself as ‘a scientist with rare expertise in rare paediatric diseases’, earned a PhD in biochemistry from Cambridge University, according to her LinkedIn page.
She is understood to run a consultancy called Railroad Children which works with patients under 18 who are suffering rare diseases and their families in a bid to identify novel treatments.
News of the fundraiser comes just one day after parents who say their daughter was one of the killer’s first victims recalled the chilling moment they found Letby alone with their newborn seconds before she nearly died.
Mike and Victoria Whitfield’s daughter Felicity suffered a catastrophic lung collapse three days after being born prematurely at Countess of Chester Hospital – where the nurse carried out her killing spree – in November 2013.
The couple believe Felicity was one of Letby’s first victims. She came so close to death that a chaplain was called to conduct an emergency baptism. She was taken to a nearby hospital and revived, and is now a happy and energetic nine-year-old.
Mrs Whitfield was not aware at the time that the blonde woman standing over her daughter’s cot was Letby until she saw her image on the news. The nurse has since been convicted of murdering seven babies and trying to kill six more.
Describing the horrific realisation during Letby’s trial, she told Good Morning Britain yesterday: ‘When we saw her picture come on the screen I felt sick to the stomach and called Mike and said, ”She was the one who was over the cot that night”.’
Describing the night itself, Mrs Whitfield recalled the moment that she left her hospital room to go to the neo-natal unit at 3am on November 20, 2013.
She said: ‘I had a mother’s instinct to go and see her. She was doing fine in the days before and breathing well for herself.
‘She was doing so well that a nurse – who I believe was Lucy Letby – told Mike to go home because he was looking so tired.
‘I went to the ward and as I was walking towards the cot saw Lucy standing over it. She looked up at me then walked away.
‘Then I walked towards the cot and within what seemed like seconds – although it could have been longer – all the beepers started going off and all hell broke loose.’
She continued: ‘I’ve got this constant and permanent image in my head of when she was standing over the cot. There was no smile when she looked up – her face was just blank, then she walked off.
‘Then for everything to go crazy is something I can’t get out of my head.
‘When I saw her image on the TV it was that exact same stare. It made me sick to think it could have been her that did something.’
Mr Whitfield said they were ‘preparing for the worst’ when Felicity was transferred later that morning to Arrowe Park Hospital in Birkenhead.
Cheshire Police limited their investigation to the deaths of 17 babies and 15 non-fatal collapses at the hospital’s neo-natal unit between March 2015 and July 2016 – two years after Felicity almost died.
Police are now reviewing the care of 4,000 babies Letby may have come into contact with during a spell at Countess of Chester Hospital from January 2012 to the end of June 2016 and two work placements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital in 2012 and 2015.
Cheshire Police has said that there was ‘nothing untoward established’ in Felicity’s case but the position could be assessed with new information.
Letby is Britain’s most prolific child serial killer in modern times and was sentenced to an unprecedented 14 whole-life orders on Monday.
