This report extends the footprint of blame around babies’ deathspublished at 13:15 BST
Judith Moritz
Reporting from Liverpool
The question of whether babies might have lived or avoided injury was always going to be the starkest issue for Lady Justice Thirlwall to resolve.
She is firm in her view that some of Letby’s murders and attacks could have been prevented, but has held back from specifying exactly how many babies might have been saved. She says that “this is something we will never know for sure”.
According to Thirlwall’s timeline, if action had been taken after the unusual cluster of three deaths in June 2015, it might have prevented another four babies from being killed.
If something had been done in October 2015 it would have stopped three of the deaths. There are other missed opportunities identified in February 2016 and May 2016 before the deaths of two triplet brothers happened in June 2016.
Seeing this litany of missed opportunities set out so clearly in black and white makes for alarming reading.
The babies’ parents have been poring over the report this morning – and are firm in their view that Lucy Letby could have been stopped long before she was eventually removed from nursing.
They are in no doubt of her guilt, and the Thirlwall Inquiry has operated on the same basis, its chair writing that “the avenues of appeal for convicted persons are well known and they do not include a public inquiry”.
The sound of Letby’s supporters protesting on the pavement outside is audible within the hearing room.
They will scour the Thirlwall report for evidence that it has exposed a chaotic hospital with widespread failings, and a nurse who has been scapegoated.
But it will also be read keenly by those who do not doubt Letby’s criminality – and who now have the wider context of what managers failed to do to stop her.
It’s those managers who will likely emerge most bruised from this inquiry. Lady Justice Thirlwall has not pulled her punches, finding that between them they were dictatorial, ran an exercise in spin, tried to control the narrative, and lost all judgement.
Only Lucy Letby has been held criminally responsible for the babies’ deaths and near-deaths, but this report extends the footprint of blame.
Letby’s supporters holding placards near Liverpool Town Hall earlier
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