Lucy Letby and the totality of the evidence

Sir, – An opinion piece concludes with the possibility that “British justice may have once again wrongly prosecuted an innocent person for phantom crimes that never were” (“Lucy Letby is Britain’s most prolific serial child killer. But doubts linger about the evidence”, Opinion & Analysis, July 20th).

In the course of discussing various media articles and a number of opinions from a variety of commentators of varying expertise, the writer states: “In two other cases where the children survived, the prosecution argued that Letby had secretly spiked their insulin. But the forensic result offered by the prosecution as proof of this was challenged by several forensic scientists as misleading.”

The prosecution case argued that Lucy Letby added insulin to intravenous nutrition and fluids, not that she had “secretly spiked their insulin”, which implies that the babies were being treated with insulin.

Inaccuracies in commentaries on the case underscore the importance of leaving this to legal processes where the totality of the evidence is considered by appropriately qualified experts. – Yours, etc,