Welcome to the first spring update of 2025, after a long winter of ups and downs.
In mid-March, the Thirlwall Inquiry reopened for 3 days to hear the closing arguments. Lady Thirlwall herself retired and will spend the next few months looking at all of the findings and aims to come back in the autumn with her final recommendations.
Those who hoped it would quietly pass over without controversy and relatively unnoticed were in for a shock. Appeals to pause the whole inquiry were submitted by both Lucy’s lawyer and the lawyer acting on behalf of the hospital management.
Whilst a pause was unlikely to happen, it was fascinating to sit there and hear the arguments and wondering what the next move of the hospital management could be.
If, and it's a big if, they are the ones being looked at for crimes of gross negligence manslaughter by Cheshire Police, could they go back to echoing what they originally said several years ago, which was much more in support of Lucy's innocence?
Here is a BBC article that covers this development:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g94jzgl4eo
Of course we have no idea what strategy they will take, but we must hope that some, if not all, seize this possible opportunity to do the right thing and speak truthfully. Lucy has been let down by so many people who proclaimed their loyalty to her at one point, only for them to shy away when it really mattered. But it’s NEVER too late to do the right thing!
More details on the closing arguments can be found in the following article from the Nursing Times:
In the media, it was fantastic to hear Lord Sumption give an interview on LBC News. Prior to the interview Lord Sumption came to the conclusion that Lucy is “probably innocent” after reviewing the case for himself. He also backs Lucy being granted a retrial.
In his interview with Tom Swarbrick, Lord Sumption raised the issue of the questionable scientific evidence and the poor standards of care given at the Countess of Chester Hospital. He also noted that 5 of the 7 babies who died, were found to have died of natural causes in post mortems at the much better equipped Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.
It is so important that people of Lord Sumption’s standing come forward and speak up. Not only because of his extensive knowledge of the criminal justice system, but it is also another blow for the biased media, who seek to portray those of us supporting Lucy to be nothing more than conspiracy theorist crackpots!
Lord Sumption’s interview can be watched on YouTube by clicking on the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn4YQUlJHmc
At the time of writing this update, Lucy’s lawyer has just submitted his application to the Criminal Cases Review Commision (CCRC) for their consideration. If they deem its content to be “new evidence” then they could and hopefully will refer the case back to the Court of Appeal and suddenly, it’s all to play for again.
I have no idea of the details of the content of what was handed over, so I can’t really say a lot about it, other than I am keeping everything crossed it meets the criteria the CCRC requires and it will be looked at in a timely manner.
On more domestic campaigning matters, those of you who read last month’s update may remember me saying I had a little activity in the pipeline for anyone interested in doing something extra to help Lucy.
A few of us in The Yellow Butterfly Group have now written to Mr Jesse Norman, Lucy’s home city MP. Mr Norman appeared to show an interest in the case when Sir David Davis raised the matter in Parliament back in January, so we have asked him to consider joining forces with Sir David, or at least play a supporting role.
Sir David most certainly needs some support in Parliament going forward and perhaps Mr Norman could be the first person to provide it. So this really is something worth getting behind and something that we are all able to do to help.
Now as per the rules, you can only really write to your own MP and letters to other MPs tend not to get replies or acted on. Some don’t even get read at all, as they are simply thrown away or deleted by their staff.
That said, there is absolutely no harm whatsoever in trying in the hope that some letters do find their way to Mr Norman. Receiving a reply or getting a shout out in Parliament is not required, the most important thing is that Mr Norman reads our letters and they can help to feed that all important thought.
Jesse Norman’s contact details are as follows:
Parliamentary Office
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Constituency Office
Suite 2a
Penn House
Broad Street
Hereford
HR4 9AP
Email Address
jesse.norman.mp@parliament.uk
Remember to always include your name, address, email address and a contact telephone number. Once again, the most important thing is that Mr Norman reads your letter. A reply is not needed.
To close this month’s newsletter, I would like to thank everyone who has signed the petition in the last few weeks and all of you who are still going out of your way to keep putting it out there. 4176 signatures in less than 9 months is very good going. Once we hit the 5000 mark, there will be an announcement, so let’s keep it going.
There will be a lot of activities from The Yellow Butterfly Group over the summer, so keep an eye out for our updates.
Best wishes and keep the faith,
Christopher Logan (Yellow Butterfly Group Founder, Chairman and Campaign Lead)