LONDON (Reuters) – British police said on Thursday they had widened an investigation into manslaughter at the hospital where nurse Lucy Letby, who was convicted of killing seven babies, had worked.
Police opened an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the Countess of Chester hospital in northern England following Letby’s conviction in 2023, focusing on the hospital’s senior leadership and their decision making.
They will now also investigate gross negligence manslaughter, a separate offence that focuses on the grossly negligent action or inaction of individuals, Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes said in a statement.
Letby’s lawyers last month launched a new bid to overthrow her conviction following a conclusion by some medical experts that none of the babies had actually been murdered.
Police on Thursday said the widened scope of the hospital investigation will not impact Letby’s conviction, of killing the seven newborns and attempting to murder eight more between June 2015 and June 2016 while working in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital.
As Britain’s worst serial child killer of modern times, she is serving 15 full life terms in prison and was told she would never be released. Letby, 35, has maintained her innocence throughout but has been refused permission to appeal against her convictions.
Hughes, the senior investigating officer in the case, said suspects in the widened investigation had been notified but no arrests or charges had yet been made.
There were also no fixed timescales for either the corporate manslaughter or gross negligence manslaughter elements of the investigations, he added.
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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