Letby inquiry: Chair rejects calls to pause investigation

The public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding nurse Lucy Letby’s murder and attempted murder of babies in her care will not be halted, the inquiry chair has ruled, despite pleas for a pause from Letby and former senior managers at the NHS trust where she worked.

Lawyers for Letby and the former executives asked for the stay, citing evidence submitted by her lawyers to the Criminal Cases Review Commission that the deaths may have resulted from poor medical care or natural causes. But the appeal court judge Kathryn Thirlwall, who chairs the inquiry, rejected the pleas. She plans to deliver her report in November.

The call was made in closing submissions to the …