Individuals may be charged for ‘negligence’ at Letby trust

Cheshire police opened a corporate manslaughter investigation into the Countess of Chester Hospital nearly 18 months ago, focusing on senior leaders and their decision making, but issued a statement last night saying this had been extended to considering gross negligence manslaughter.

Unlike corporate manslaughter, where any changes are brought against a corporate body such as a trust, gross negligence manslaughter charges are brought against individuals.

No arrests or charges have been made, senior investigating officer detective superintendent Paul Hughes said in a statement. The force has not said how many suspects it is looking at or who they are.

He said the corporate manslaughter investigation, opened after Letby’s convictions in 2023, “focuses on senior leadership and their decision making to determine whether any criminality has taken place concerning the response to the increased levels of fatalities”.

“As our enquiries have continued, the scope of the investigation has now widened to also include gross negligence manslaughter,” he said.

“This is a separate offence to corporate manslaughter and focuses on the grossly negligent action or inaction of individuals. It is important to note that this does not impact on the convictions of Lucy Letby for multiple offences of murder and attempted murder.”

The neonatal nurse was convicted in 2023 of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six more. She was later found guilty of another attempted murder charge at a second trial. The offences happened in 2015 and 2016. 

But her case has now been passed to the Criminal Cases Review Commission – which investigates miscarriages of justice – and some are increasingly questioning her public, including a panel of neonatologists and paediatric specialists.

A public inquiry into the events surrounding the case is expected to convene for closing statements for three days next week, with the findings likely to be published in the autumn.

Cheshire police’s statement added: ”Our investigation into the deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neo-natal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital between the period of 2012 to 2016 is also ongoing.”

The Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust said it would not be appropriate to comment.

It is unusual for trusts to face charges of corporate manslaughter. The first such case in 2016, involving the death of a woman after her baby was delivered at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust, collapsed when the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to proceed.

But North East London Foundation Trust is currently being tried on a corporate manslaughter charge, with a ward manager facing a charge of gross negligence manslaughter over the case of a young woman who took her own life.

Sussex police are also investigating cases of alleged medical negligence at University Hospitals Sussex FT, but no charges have so far been brought.

Gross negligence manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment but the degree of negligence involved has to be very high before an individual’s conduct is considered criminal.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, it has to involve a breach of the duty of care to a victim in circumstances that were “were truly exceptionally bad” and where it was “reasonably foreseeable” that the breach of that duty gave rise to a “serious and obvious risk” of death.