Lucy Letby 'has new hope' as lawyer says baby killer 'was broken' and 'hopeless'

Child murdererLucy Letby, described as a "broken person", now has a "new hope", according to her barrister.

Her parents reached out to Mark McDonald nearly a year ago, asking him to replace her previous solicitor and secure her release from prison, he revealed in an interview with the Sunday Times.

He met with the killer a week later, who is currently serving 15 whole-life sentences for murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, including two attempts on one victim, between June 2015 and June 2016.

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McDonald stated that he is presenting "new evidence" to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, and has also spent the past year working to increase public criticism of her convictions. He assembled a team of 14 neonatal and paediatric experts, shared the babies' medical records with them, and held a press conference questioning the prosecution's case.

Lawyers representing Letby's victims previously dismissed the panel's findings as "full of analytical holes" and "a rehash" of the defence case presented at trial.

In July, Cheshire Police submitted evidence of additional allegations related to infant deaths and collapses at the hospitals where Letby, 35, worked. McDonald, known for his high-profile appeals, told the Sunday Times: "Remember, 12 months ago, she'd lost every argument. She had been saying that she was not guilty right from the beginning and nobody believed her.

"She went through a whole trial and she was convicted. She went to the Court of Appeal and she was convicted. She had a retrial; she was convicted. She went to the Court of Appeal again; she was convicted. And that was it. There, you have a broken person. But today, after everything that has happened in the last 12 months, she's got new hope."

McDonald, 59, reckons he's spent thousands of hours on Letby's case and chatted with the newspaper whilst holidaying with his two children, aged three and four. He revealed he chats with the killer at least once every fortnight and visits her monthly at Bronzefield prison, in Ashford, Surrey.

"I'm on holiday in Devon and I'm working on (the case). I had a telephone conference with Lucy yesterday. I won't stop. I will not stop until she is out," he declared.

It is important to “win the public narrative” of a potential miscarriage of justice case before taking on the legal narrative, because “the Court of Appeal will know that the country is going to be looking at them”, he added.

The barrister claimed he's never submitted this much evidence to the CCRC and "if this is not referred back to the Court of Appeal then one has to question the purpose of the CCRC".

The possible offences against Letby are now under review by lawyers at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

The shocking revelation came just hours after police confirmed that three senior members of the hospital where Letby was employed have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

Cheshire Constabulary revealed that the suspects, who held high-ranking positions at the Countess of Chester Hospital (CoCH) between 2015 and 2016, were taken into custody and later released on bail pending further inquiries.

The force also confirmed that inquiries into corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter are ongoing.

Mr McDonald had previously expressed concern over the timing of the police's announcement regarding potential new charges against Letby, calling it a "very sensitive time" and advocating for a comprehensive public inquiry into the hospital's failings.

In a recent interview with the Sunday Times, Mr McDonald stated: "I'm not naive; I'm a criminal defence barrister – I've represented many people over the years who are guilty. But I'm also able to see very clearly where this has gone wrong. There's no forensic evidence. There's no CCTV. There's no eyewitness evidence."

He added: "There's just a theory by a man called Dewi Evans," referring to the lead prosecution medical expert in her trial.