Lucy Letby’s new lawyer also represented ex-nurse Benjamin Geen – who was jailed for life in 2006 after an ‘unusual’ number of respiratory arrests on his hospital ward
Lucy Letby’s new lawyer has worked with a client who has haunting similarities to the killer nurse’s case – after he was convicted of murdering two patients and poisoning 15 others.
Ex-nurse Benjamin Geen was jailed for life in 2006 after an “unusual” number of respiratory arrests on his ward at Horton general hospital in Banbury, Oxfordshire. The then 25-year-old was given a minimum 30-year sentence, with the criminal cases review commission (CCRC) repeatedly declining to send his case back to the court of appeal.
Geen was later represented by barrister Mark McDonald, who is now planning a fresh appeal to challenge Letby’s convictions. Taking on the case last year, McDonald said he would present new statistical evidence to the CCRC in hopes they would refer Geen’s case to the court of appeal.
He said: “The prosecution says there’s a pattern: that he is on duty every time someone gets sick and that respiratory arrest is rare. They have said: ‘You have never proven it is not rare’. Now we have a report saying that it is not rare.”
Geen’s case was also questioned by leading statisticians, including Sir David Spiegelhalter, and compared to the case of Sally Clarke, who was convicted of murdering her two baby boys in 1999. Her convictions overturned due to flawed statistics, and during her trial, Clarke had maintained that the infants suffered cot deaths.
It comes as the lawyer announced he would share “fresh developments” that he claims “significantly undermines” Lucy Letby’s convictions. The 34-year-old was sentenced to 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted across two trials of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others
McDonald said he will make his announcement on Monday afternoon at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. He said: “There will be a press conference by the legal defence team for Lucy Letby to announce fresh developments on the case. At the conference we will also be announcing new evidence, which significantly undermines the convictions.”
The barrister said he met with more than 50 experts in neonatology, pathology and statistics, who were willing to assist in Letby’s appeal. Previously discussing the case, McDonald said in September: “I knew almost from the start, following this trial, that there is a strong case that she is innocent.
“The fact is juries get it wrong. And yes, so do the Court of Appeal, history teaches us that.”
