Mike Lynch had concerns over Lucy Letby conviction, says former minister

Former cabinet minister Sir David Davis has said that Mike Lynch, the tech mogul who died when his yacht sank off the coast of Sicily last week, was planning to examine the murder conviction of nurse Lucy Letby over concerns about its safety.

Sir David, the former Brexit secretary, has previously told The Independent he plans to spearhead an investigation questioning the conviction of Letby after a number of experts cast doubt over her guilt.

Sir David said he hopes to visit Letby in prison as part of an investigation into whether the serial baby killer may be the victim of a miscarriage of justice. Letby is serving 15 whole-life sentences for seven murders and eight attempted murders of babies in her care at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

Writing in The Sunday Times, Sir David said that Mr Lynch, who was one of seven people to have died in the yachting tragedy, shared his concerns about Letby’s conviction.

“[Mike Lynch] planned to establish a UK equivalent to the Innocence Project, a [US] non-profit organisation that works to exonerate those who have suffered miscarriages of justice. He raised the case of the Lucy Letby trial as one that had already caught his attention,” Sir David wrote.

“Mike was a world-class expert on probability theory, and saw straight through the statistical weaknesses that underpinned the Letby prosecution. One of our first projects was going to be investigating that trial properly.

“We were due to meet on Thursday, 22 August, to discuss the plans. But on Monday, just as I was planning to send him a text to confirm the lunch, devastating news was breaking about his superyacht sinking during stormy weather near Palermo in Italy.”

Sir David said Mr Lynch wanted to investigate potential miscarriages of justice after his own experience fighting a fraud case brought against him in America.

Several medical professionals have raised questions over Letby’s conviction. In one podcast, the statistician Peter Elston and retired paediatrician Michael McConville claimed there had been inadequacies in the medical evidence presented during her trial.

Letby continues to maintain her innocence despite her conviction and told jurors during her trial she was “not the sort of person who would kill babies”.

It comes as a manslaughter investigation has now been launched by Italian prosecutors into the sinking of Mr Lynch’s Bayesian superyacht near Porticello at about 5am local time on Monday.

The yacht had been hit by a downburst. These are powerful winds that descend from a thunderstorm and spread out quickly once they hit the ground.

Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were also recovered from the wreckage.

The boat trip was in celebration of Mr Lynch’s acquittal in the fraud case.

The businessman, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of carrying out a massive fraud relating to its $11bn (£8.64bn) sale to US company Hewlett-Packard.