Was There Ever A Crime? The Trials of Lucy Letby with John Sweeney

TRAILER: 'Was There Ever A Crime? The Trials of Lucy Letby' with John Sweeney

Was There Ever A Crime? The Trials of Lucy Letby with John Sweeney

Show Notes

New podcast announcement. Welcome to our new podcast series 'Was There Ever A Crime: The Trials of Lucy Letby'.

Please help us fund this important journalistic project, go to our Crowdfunder here - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/lucy-letby-was-there-ever-a-crime

Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Lucy Letby is Britain's worst female serial killer in modern times. Or is she? On the day she was first convicted, veteran journalist John Sweeney tweeted: "Lucy Letby may well be the victim of a miscarriage of justice, that the Crown has taken a cluster of accidental and natural deaths and pointed the finger at Letby. There is no compelling evidence of a single murder. The law, sometimes, gets it wrong." In a forensic six-part podcast series, Sweeney, who helped free cot death mum Sally Clark in 2003, and investigative writer Edward Abel Smith address the elephant in the courtroom: was there ever a crime? The Crown's version is that there is compelling medical evidence, a confession and a spreadsheet proving she is the only common denominator when death happens on her watch, time and again. Lock her up and throw away the key. That's exactly what the trial judge did. Judge Goss told the court: "There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions… you will spend the rest of your life in prison." The parents of those poor babies who died at the Countess of Chester Hospital have been going through hell, with every detail of their child's death being laid out in front of them. Nothing should take away from their tragedy or grief. But it is important in a country where we pride ourselves on our legal system, that Lucy's case is properly scrutinised. The trigger to this case was a spike in deaths in the unit, which looked after very premature, very small babies, sometimes only two pounds in weight at birth, from three deaths per year up to ten in 2015 and eight in 2016. How come? The series examines evidence from multiple Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections and internal reports that highlight significant issues at the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit. These reports indicate the unit was understaffed, with workforce levels 20% below national standards, and faced challenges in maintaining proper care standards. The CQC noted poor maintenance of premises, to the point where some risks had to be escalated during inspections due to patient safety concerns. Internal documents from 2015 revealed the unit was "currently understaffed and underskilled," according to the nurse manager. The hospital's overall rating remained "requires improvement," with particular concerns raised about maternity and neonatal services. In other words the hospital was in the shit, literally and metaphorically, in bad condition, poorly staffed, the sink flooded with raw sewage when it rained heavily; that the spreadsheets proving Lucy's guilt tell a lie as dishonest as painting the target around the arrow after it has been shot; that the babies who died were very, very sick; that her "confession" is no such thing rather therapeutic processing of stress; that the medical evidence against her is a poorly evidenced theory, not fact; that the spike in baby deaths in Lucy's unit can be readily explained by the hospital accepting the most vulnerable babies for the first time, a national surge in neonatal deaths and the shit; that there was never proof of a single crime. And the hospital did not publish evidence of a high-risk bacteria in the tap at the neonatal unit. This podcast, from the makers of the award-winning podcast series, Hunting Ghislaine, will be an extraordinary listen. Look out for the first episode, "Was There Ever A Crime? The Trials of Lucy Letby: A Hospital Full Of Shit" The series is being crowdfunded as we are without any commercial backers for this project. If you fear that Lucy Letby has been the victim of a miscarriage of justice, please contribute to our crowdfunder. Twitter/X: @johnsweeneyroar /

More from Was There Ever A Crime? The Trials of Lucy Letby with John Sweeney

Feb 14, 2025

Episode Eight: John Sweeney and Edward Abel Smith are joined by Cleuci De Oliveira for a question and answer session on everything related to the trials of Lucy Letby. But this episode starts with yet another astonishing revelation about one of the four consultants who were Lucy Letby's primary accusers.

Feb 4, 2025

Today, on February 4th, 2025, we have heard the first complete report by the international panel of medical experts gathered by Lucy Letby's legal team under the guidence of Dr. Shoo Lee. The report summary was presented in London at a press conference hosted by Sir David Davis, the senior Conservative party MP who has raised questions about the case and declared his certainty that this is a miscarriage of justice.

Dec 20, 2024

Unreliable Witness? As questions rise about the credibility of the Crown's star expert witness, Dr Dewi Evans, in this episode co-hosts John Sweeney and Edward Abel Smith go back in time to a 34-year-old scandal when a boy suffering a treatable disease died wholly unnecessarily in his hospital. The evidence pointed to GPs being negligent and forging medical notes. Dr Evans stands accused of taking part in a cover-up. If so, Dr Evans may be a key player in not one terrible miscarriage of justice, but two. This is a wholly independent produced podcast. We are crowd funding for the legal costs, if you wish to contribute please visit our crowdfunder page here.

Dec 5, 2024

This is Episond 6: The framing of Lucy Letby, the last episode in our series.

Nov 28, 2024

In Episode 5, Bad Science, we interview statistician John O'Quigley and neonatologist Colin Morley who have great doubts about the science behind the convictions against Lucy Letby. The two professors back up their logic with their own research papers - unlike the Crown's star expert witness, Dr Dewi Evans. This is an independently funded project, if you want to support the podcast please visit our Crowdfunder page.

See all episodes →