Doctor admits nagging 'guilt' about Lucy Letby in Netflix doc: 'Did we get it wrong?'
Dr John Gibbs worked at the same hospital as Lucy Letby
Dr John Gibbs worked at the same hospital as Lucy Letby at the same time as the murders. In a new Netflix documentary, he admits wondering… did they get it wrong?
Letby was a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital. She was sentenced to life behind bars for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven others between 2015 and 2016.
Various experts have contested her conviction (after a 10-month trial by a jury). This includes lawyer Mark McDonald and Dr. Shoo Lee, whose study was used by the prosecution to bolster their arguments.
Gibbs, a retired consultant paediatrician, appears in The Investigation of Lucy Letby. While he doesn’t think there’s been a miscarriage of justice, he can’t help but think, what if?
Doctor says he lives with “two guilts” after Lucy Letby conviction in new doc
Towards the end of the Netflix documentary, Gibbs addresses how he (and other consultants) have been accused of having a “vendetta” against Letby in the wake of her conviction.
“Where is your evidence for that?” he asks.
“I have been accused online of killing babies, which is shocking.”
Gibbs then says he lives with “two guilts… guilt that we let the babies down, and a tiny, tiny, tiny guilt, ‘Did we get the wrong person?'”
He doesn’t think there was a miscarriage of justice. However, he does admit that there’s a worry that “no one saw her do it”.
Earlier in the doc, Gibbs describes Letby as a nurse who was “quiet” but “keen” and “conscientious”.
Doctor told Letby inquiry he felt “ashamed”
As part of the Thirlwall Inquiry (the public inquiry into the events at the Countess of Chester Hospital and the implications of Letby’s conviction) in 2024, Gibbs also admitted he felt “ashamed”.
“I do deeply regret and I am ashamed that I failed to protect the babies from harm by Lucy Letby, but I do understand that the parents concerned probably now would prefer explanations rather than belated apologies,” he said.
Gibbs also cited an earlier case: the 2011-2012 Stepping Hill murders. Nurse Rebecca Leighton was initially arrested, but charges were eventually dropped, leading to the conviction of Victorino Chua.
“You don’t have to have to be a perpetrator to be unfortunate and be on duty when sad events keep happening,” he said.
Gibbs also explained how there was “firm pushback” from nurses amid early suspicions about Letby.
“I know the parents of the later babies will not thank us for this. [But] the suspicion was that there might be something that had affected a number of babies on the unit and it would be best managed through senior execs on the trust,” he said.
Where is Lucy Letby now?
Lucy Letby is incarcerated at HM Prison Bronzefield in Ashford, England.
She received a whole life order, the fourth female criminal in British history to get such a sentence.
In December last year, retired prison governor Vanessa Frake explained that she’s considered a high-risk prisoner.
“Women who have had children, who are carers and nurturers, will see the likes of Letby as lower than low,” she told the Daily Record.
In January this year, the Crown Prosecution Service also said it wouldn’t be pursuing other charges against Letby, coming after Cheshire Constabulary submitted further allegations.
“The Crown Prosecution Service considered offences of murder and attempted murder in respect of two infants who died and attempted murder in respect of seven infants who survived,” it said.
“We concluded that the evidential test was not met in any of those cases.”
Cheshire Police said it was “not the outcome that we had anticipated”.
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