Lucy Letby: Expert blasts armchair sleuths in killer nurse case as 'Poundshop Poirots'

Dr Dewi Evans, a baby death expert whose evidence in court helped nail Lucy Letby, has been under a constant barrage of threats since the trial at Manchester Crown Court

A neonatal expert has slammed armchair sleuths in the Lucy Letby case as "Poundshop Poirots".

Dr Dewi Evans's evidence in court helped nail Lucy Letby, who was found guilty of murdering seven very young babies and trying to murder six others. However, since the trial, Dr Evans has received a constant barrage of threats.

MPs, media commentators and medical and scientific professionals are turning on him, too, the baby death expert claims. However, he said today Letby's "convictions are absolutely solid."

And the medic blasted those behind campaigns to try and prove that Letby is innocent. Letby, 34, was given a whole-life term in prison for the offences, carried out at the Countess of Chester Hospital in the spce of one year. The evil nurse was earlier this year found guilty of trying to kill another baby in the neonatal unit where she worked.

So Dr Evans was "astonished" by the campaign in her support following the convictions. He said: "It seems to be led by people with the least amount of information about the cases. People who had no access to the clinical records and were not there for the trial.

"I think it reflects the shock of having to come to terms with the fact that how on earth could a young nurse deliberately harm babies in her care? Lucy Letby had a fair trial. The convictions are absolutely solid."

The doctor spoke to The Sun as Letby, born in Hereford, will have her appeal against her convictions for attempted murder on babies heard at the Appeal Court today.

An appeal heard in May was dismissed by three senior judges for lack of new evidence. Her new barrister Mark McDonald is now also planning to take her case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

After her convictions, the Free Letby campaign was turbo-charged by a 13,000-word report in the New Yorker magazine. Now her case has been taken up by campaigners such as MP Sir David Davis.

The Thirlwell public inquiry into Letby's crimes has heard disturbing evidence of the nurse potentially tampering with babies' breathing tubes while on two work placements at Liverpool Women's Hospital in 2012 and 2015.

Richard Baker KC, representing the families of 12 babies, said that during her time at Liverpool Women's Hospital babies had collapsed due to dislodgement of endotracheal [breathing] tubes during nearly 40 per cent of her shifts - despite it happening on average in less than one per cent of nursing shifts.