I support the court judgment in the case of Lucy Letby, Wes Streeting says

Lucy Letby’s fate should be decided by the courts and not campaigners, the Health Secretary has said.

Wes Streeting said that the former nurse is a “convicted criminal and convicted of some of the most serious crimes imaginable”.

It comes as a new documentary, The Investigation Of Lucy Letby, was released on Netflix.

Asked about a campaign movement and the release of a documentary about her, Mr Streeting told LBC News: “Unless and until there is a judicial process that says that the court has got it wrong, I have to continue to have confidence in the court’s judgments, and I’m certainly not going to provide a running commentary.

“I can see there’s an active campaign on this, and there is a judicial process.

“If people think the courts have got it wrong, they can bring forward their evidence. They can test it and challenge it in the usual way.

“But it’s absolutely not for me to comment.

“As far as I’m concerned, Lucy Letby is a convicted criminal and convicted of some of the most serious crimes imaginable.

“And unless and until that changes, I will continue to support the judgment of the courts unless that judgment is successfully challenged through evidence, not through campaigning.”

Letby, 36, from Hereford, was removed from clinical duties in July 2016 after consultant paediatricians raised concerns that she may be deliberately harming babies.

She is serving 15 whole-life orders at HMP Bronzefield after she was convicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.

A group of campaigners is backing Letby and has submitted reports to legal review body the Criminal Cases Review Commission to try to get her convictions overturned.

Letby was twice denied permission to appeal against her convictions in 2024.

On Wednesday the inquests into the deaths of five babies who Letby was convicted of murdering are set to open.

It coincides with the release of a new Netflix documentary about her.

The documentary features new footage, as well as interviews with police and lawyers.

It includes dramatic police footage of Letby’s series of arrests along with, for the first time, a family member involved in the prosecution.

The mother of one baby, given the pseudonym Zoe, whose daughter suddenly collapsed and died after being harmed by Letby, said: “She was so fragile, small and precious. I was just so angry and so sad and so confused.”

She adds: “It’s been storm after storm and it’s not over, but I want to make it through.”

And a prison letter from Letby sent to a friend reveals she is refusing to give up hope.

Letby writes: “I’m trying to do all I can to remain strong and positive. I’m determined to get through this. I will not give up.”

Consultant Dr John Gibbs, who worked as a paediatrician at the Countess of Chester Hospital, says there was a “kernel of truth” in defence findings that the hospital was understaffed, although he argued it was an ongoing NHS issue.

He adds: “I live with two guilts. Guilt that we let the babies down, and a tiny, tiny, tiny guilt: ‘Did we get the wrong person?’”

“I don’t think there was a miscarriage of justice, but you worry that, no-one actually saw her do it.”

Mark McDonald, a barrister acting on behalf of Letby, tells the documentary: “We have to remember, no one saw her do anything wrong.

“It is a complicated, it is an emotional case, but it actually follows a long line of convictions that have happened in this country, also internationally.

“Many of those convictions have been found to be miscarriages of justice.”

Lady Justice Thirlwall’s inquiry report into how Letby was able to commit her crimes on a hospital neonatal unit is due to be published this year.