Key evidence that could have helped Letby’s defence over ‘poisoning’ of babies ‘wasn’t heard in court’, Sun doc reveals

THE lynchpin of all the convictions were claims the nurse tried to kill two babies with insulin – the only forensic evidence in the case. The prosecution proved the poisoning in court by showing Babies F and L had low blood sugar – a key indicator of having too much insulin in their system. Lead-accuser Dr Stephen Brearey found 14 normal glucose readings for Baby F around the time of the alleged poisoning Credit: Dan Charity Letby was convicted of murdering a string of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital Credit: Dan Charity The nurse was not on the unit at the time of the poisoning Credit: AP But The Sun has learned lead-accuser Dr Stephen Brearey found 14 normal glucose readings for Baby F around the time of the alleged poisoning, which he left out his original police report. The results were not included in his witness statement to the court and did not appear in a blood glucose log produced by the prosecution. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! This meant no-one explained the “full clinical” picture of the baby, who experts – who have reviewed the case – believe could have been suffering an infection at the time. The alternative explanation could have been crucial to undermining the poisoning claims against Letby, Sun documentary ‘Lucy Letby: Scapegoat?’ will claim on 5. Retired Det Stuart Clifton uncovered the insulin poisoning used by killer nurse Beverley Allitt – the original ‘Angel of Death,’ said: “It’s not physically possible to have high sugar and high insulin. “If you’ve got normal blood sugar, he’s not receiving insulin. It’s as simple as that. That is clear grounds for appeal. It would have cleared her in the eyes of a jury. He added: “Scientific evidence is central to any murder investigation, particularly where you haven’t got a witness. And in the Letby case, there is no witness of her doing anything. “If you look at these two insulin cases like a house of cards, these two cards hold the whole house up. If you move those two cards out, the whole house collapses.” Most read in The Sun One reading, taken at 5am while the poisoning was taking place, was included at Letby’s trial, but left out of the dossier Dr Brearey initially handed to police. The blood glucose score of 2.9 was totally normal for the newborn and could have been indicative, on its own, the baby was not being poisoned with insulin as he was comfortably responding to sugar. It comes as… A whistleblower says Lucy Letby may have been ‘scapegoat’ to cover up failures at the unit A mum says she believes her boy died of a sewage-linked bug that came from the taps months after Letby was removed from the unit An unseen bombshell email sent by a doctor who was the only Letby eyewitness CONTRADICTS his evidence to jury A top surgeon’s damning verdict undermines the prosecution star witness The significance of this score – and the other missing scores – was not properly explored during the trial, experts have told The Sun. The nurse was not on the unit at the time of the poisoning, but prosecutors claimed she spiked one, if not two, feed bags before they were given to Baby F. The Sun has learned discrepancies also exist around the evidence for the other Letby poisoning, Baby L. Lab results were available to the court on all days from April to 8 to April 12 2016 – but the day of alleged insulin poisoning result, on April 9, was missing. Retired Detective Stuart Clifton said it’s ‘not physically possible to have high sugar and high insulin’ Credit: Andrew Styczynski After Letby’s trials in 2023 and 2024 the lab reading was confirmed in nurses notes as being 2.8 – a normal blood sugar reading that undermined the insulin poisoning claims. It also undermined prosecution timings on what happened to the baby that day, suggesting the baby’s blood sugar was fine even before it was given sugar. A source said: “The inclusion of these readings for the trial could have been crucial for undermining the prosecution case against Letby. “In some respects they show the babies may not have been poisoned at the times the prosection claimed they were. “In other cases the results help build a clinical picture of what was actually going on with the babies at the time. “The results could have helped prove these were naturally poorly babies, but the jury were never given that information.” The Sun can also reveal Letby’s main accuser, Dr Stephen Brearey, failed to report a needling of Baby O during the tragic newborn’s collapse and death. The consultant inserted a cannula in the baby’s stomach to release bloating as they fought to save the triplet’s life, in June 2016. Dr Stephen Brearey also failed to report a needling of Baby O during the tragic newborn’s collapse and death Credit: Dan Charity Evidence that could have helped Lucy Letby’s defence wasn’t heard in court, the documentary hears Credit: AFP But instead of releasing gas, he pulled out blood – suggesting he must have hit something else. There is no suggestion Dr Brearey called the child’s death – but he failed to report the incident to the coroner, until AFTER Baby=O’s post mortem had been completed. Stephanie Davies, who was the senior coroner’s officer for Cheshire at the time, told The Sun: “It meant the coroner could not investigate whether or not the procedure had contributed to the death. “If death happened shortly afterwards, then that has to be investigated by a coroner, and it wasn’t.” The Sun has learned records of the needle insertion and the babies levels of haemoglobin falling may have been reordered in Dr Brearey’s notes. The handwritten note he based his evidence in court appears to record the time of the needle insertion as 5.53pm. But a document seen by The Sun shows the needle was inserted at 5.25pm. Stuart Clifton said: “He should have disclosed everything that he did.“So you couple that with the fact that he didn’t report the needling to the coroner, and you begin to get a picture that things are not quite right here. “The whole thing makes you feel that Lucy Letby was unjustifiably convicted by people who should have known better.” The prosecution applied to put the insulin cases first, aware that once the jury were persuaded someone was poisoning children they could tie it to Letby. In the judge’s summing up, he told the jury it appeared beyond doubt someone had poisoned the babies. The judge told the jury if they convicted Letby over the insulin cases they could use that as evidence in the murder charges that she was prepared to harm babies. Det Supt Clifton reviewed Letby’s crimes for The Sun in January and claimed her to be the victim of “the biggest miscarriage of justice”. WATCH & STREAM on 5 Lucy Letby: Scapegoat? Monday, September 21 at 10pm Comment now