Court system

Two Experts Quit Lucy Letby Defence

Does this expose fatal flaws in Letby's defence strategy or is her case still strong regardless?

Published SEP 16

Story

Above: Mark McDonald, Lucy Letby's lawyer, at a press conference in London, U.K., on Feb. 4, 2025. Image credit: Ben Whitley/PA Images/Getty Images

The Facts

Engineering expert Helen Shannon and bioengineering professor Geoff Chase withdrew from Lucy Letby's defence team Monday, citing concerns over the scientific credibility of some of its evidence and what they called "fundamental unresolvable problems."
The Trials of Lucy Letby on X
LBC
Daily Mail
In a letter to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the pair said the defence strategy was placing Letby's long-term interests at "serious, unnecessary and unacceptable risk," and that the consequences also extended to the families of the babies.
The Guardian
ITV News
Shannon and Chase, who produced a 100-page report last year, said they still regard it as "very unlikely" two babies were poisoned with insulin, but could not support other arguments they described as inconsistent with available evidence and science.
Daily Mail
The Guardian
Barrister Mark McDonald said he fundamentally disagreed that the withdrawal damaged the case, telling BBC Newsnight: "They don't know what I put into the CCRC because I haven't told them." He said both sets of experts believe Letby is innocent.
Manchester Evening News
The Standard
Speaking on Good Morning Britain, McDonald said he has 29 experts involved and has submitted nearly 2,000 pages of new reports to the CCRC, which has been reviewing Letby's convictions for 18 months and declined to comment.
Good Morning Britain on Youtube
Letby, 36, is serving 15 whole-life terms for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. She maintains her innocence and her convictions are under CCRC review, while a Thirlwall Inquiry report published Tuesday found some deaths were preventable.
BBC News
The Standard
Thirlwall Inquiry

Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

Letby's defence has gone beyond challenging the shaky insulin evidence into advancing arguments that cannot withstand basic scientific scrutiny. Shannon and Chase still stand by their doubts over the insulin convictions, yet walked away rather than attach their names to claims that contradict established physiology. A strategy that forces its own experts to quit risks undermining Letby's case instead of strengthening it.

The Guardian

Narrative B

Two experts stepping back changes nothing. Letby's case ultimately rests on the breadth and convergence of nearly 30 international specialists in insulin, endocrinology and laboratory medicine, whose evidence challenges the science behind the convictions. If the CCRC takes that evidence seriously, two departures need not derail her bid to overturn them.