Judge to hear arguments to pause inquiry into British killer nurse Letby

LONDON (Reuters) - A judge looking into the murder of newborn babies by British nurse Lucy Letby said on Monday she would hear arguments why the inquiry should be paused, after requests from hospital managers and a politician campaigning to overturn Letby's conviction.

Letby, 35, was found guilty in 2023 of murdering seven children and attempting to murder seven more between June 2015 and June 2016 while working in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, northern England, making her Britain's most prolific serial child killer of modern times.

Since then she has been found guilty of an eighth count of attempted murder, and was denied permission to appeal.

The shocking case prompted the government to order an inquiry which started last September to examine how the killings went undetected, and review the hospital's response to concerns raised about Letby before her arrest. The inquiry is not questioning whether Letby is guilty.

But a group of politicians and medical experts have since publicly challenged her convictions, with the specialists saying they had conducted a review that cast doubt on evidence the babies had been murdered.

The inquiry chair Kathryn Thirlwall, a senior judge, said at the start of closing submissions on Monday that she had received a request from lawyers representing hospital managers calling for the inquiry to be paused.

Lawmaker David Davis, who has championed Letby's cause, had also written requesting a similar pause, she said.

"For that reason I have decided that submissions should be heard on that topic as well as closing submissions," she said.

She added that she had also just received a letter from Letby's lawyers asking for the inquiry to be suspended but had not had time to read it.

Last week, police said they had widened an investigation into possible corporate manslaughter at the hospital to also consider gross negligence manslaughter committed by individuals.

Letby's new lawyers, meanwhile, are seeking to challenge her conviction on the basis that expert evidence presented by the prosecution at her trial was flawed. They have applied to a body, the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which can recommend new trials in cases of suspected miscarriage of justice.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Peter Graff)