Chair of UK inquiry into nurse Letby murders rejects calls for a pause

LONDON (Reuters) - The chair of British public inquiry examining how Lucy Letby was able to murder seven babies in her care on Wednesday rejected calls for her investigation to be paused until a review body had considered if the nurse's convictions should be re-examined.

Letby was jailed for the remainder of her life after being found guilty of murdering seven children and attempting to murder eight more while working in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in northern England.

But her case has become a cause celebre after medical experts and other specialists publicly challenged the prosecution evidence used to convict her.

After failing with previous appeals, Letby's lawyers last month made a preliminary application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which examines potential miscarriages of justice, arguing this new evidence meant her convictions were unsafe.

At the conclusion of hearings at an inquiry into the failures that led to the deaths, its chair, senior judge Kathryn Thirlwall, said she had rejected calls by lawyers for hospital managers and Letby's legal team, and from a prominent lawmaker for her work to be suspended pending the CCRC outcome.

"The inquiry does not become unfair, because there is a possibility, as it is asserted, that all the convictions are unsafe," Thirlwall said.

Lawyers representing the babies' families had said on Tuesday that there was nothing remarkable about the new evidence casting doubt over the convictions.

"It is also not uncommon for cases of alleged miscarriages of justice to be brought before the media in a blaze of publicity only for the evidence in support of them to flicker and falter," lawyer Richard Baker said.

"Whatever side of the debate people are on, people should remember that the dead and harmed are not public property to be dissected on television or on the internet."

Thirlwall said she would start writing her report on Thursday and aimed to publish it in November.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Alison Williams)