Lucy Letby inquiry finds babies could have been saved - The Latest
episodePreviously titled “Damning Lucy Letby inquiry finds ‘complete failure to protect babies’ - The Latest” — renamed by the publisher on Sep 17, 2026
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Why did the Lucy Letby case capture national attention?
This is The
Guardian.
at any point. It's difficult to imagine the trauma that some of these families have gone through.
You've got to remember this is 10 or 11 years since their children either died or were seriously harmed. Some of those children are still living with lifelong effects. So it's a really difficult experience for them.
From the Guardians today in Focus, this is the latest with me, Nosheen Iqbal. In a case that shocked us all, Lucy Letby was convicted for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of seven more in her care. She was sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison. There was a public inquiry into the hospital where she worked, and that report has been published today. Josh Halliday, you're our North of England editor, and you've covered this distressing case from the very beginning. Before we come on to the findings of the report, can you remind us why this case captured so much attention?
Yeah, of course. I mean, yeah, I've covered this from the moment Lucy Leckby was arrested. I vividly remember getting the email from Cheshire Police Press Office announcing that a member of hospital staff had been arrested on suspicion of murdering babies. And it's still one of the most shocking things. police emails that I've ever received. It's just not something that you expect to ever have to cover. And then when it emerged that Lucy Letby was the nurse involved, you know, a young nurse who was almost fresh out of university working on the neonatal unit of this hospital, you know, the place where the most vulnerable babies are. It just became even more shocking.
What were the key failures identified in the hospital’s response to early baby deaths?
I think it's almost unthinkable that this kind of thing could happen in a hospital in Britain. And when she was convicted, it meant that she was Britain's worst child serial killer, such was the sort of scale of the offences that she was said to have committed. So it's one of the most shocking criminal cases in recent British times.
Josh, Lady Justice Thirlwall published the findings of her inquiry today. What did her report reveal and what stood out to you?
It's been a long anticipated report from Lady Justice Thirlwall. We expected it about a year ago. It was quite a long inquiry. It took evidence from nearly 400 witnesses over the course of 60 days at Liverpool Town Hall. I covered many of them. And the conclusions that she would draw became quite clear during the course of the inquiry. So there were multiple failures that were identified by senior members of hospital staff in terms of how they responded to concerns that were raised about Lucy Letby from within days of three babies dying in unexplained circumstances in June 2015. And to put that into context, that's a whole year's worth of deaths on the neonatal unit in less than two weeks. So this inquiry was looking at how those concerns were managed by Lucy Letby's colleagues and in particular senior managers and hospital executives.
It's always been clear that there were failures in the process that is meant to investigate suspicious incidents and unusual incidents in cases like this. But that was really made explicit in today's report. There's just over 822 pages of inquiry findings. It's quite clear that the concerns that were raised by senior doctors when these first three babies died and in the subsequent months weren't taken seriously by senior managers and they weren't properly acted on when they were received by executives.
And so it's quite damning in its condemnation of institutional failures or failures of management, people working at that hospital. So what were Lady Thirdwall's recommendations?
So she made 17 recommendations and they're quite sweeping calls for urgent reform in the NHS. And there's a couple of particularly striking ones. One is that there should be baby monitors installed on every single incubator and cot on neonatal units in hospitals. So parents will be able to watch essentially a live feed of their baby in hospital.
What does Lady Justice Thirlwall’s inquiry report reveal about institutional shortcomings?
It just seems so practical and straightforward and obvious when you think about it.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why did the Lucy Letby case capture national attention?
0:00–1:59
2
What were the key failures identified in the hospital’s response to early baby deaths?
1:59–5:00
3
What does Lady Justice Thirlwall’s inquiry report reveal about institutional shortcomings?
5:00–9:11
4
Which specific reforms did the inquiry recommend for neonatal units?
9:11–11:51
5
Why is installing baby‑monitor cameras on every incubator considered a priority?
11:51–13:13
6
How might the inquiry findings affect the Criminal Cases Review Commission’s appeal review?
13:13–13:44
7
What ongoing criminal investigations are being pursued against hospital executives?
13:44–14:01
8
How are the families of the affected babies reacting to the report’s release?
14:01–14:03
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Today in Focus
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