Paul Cooper🌸

If you're interested in the Lucy Letby case, do watch last night's event at the @unherd club. I think we covered a lot of ground and debated some significant issues. unherd.com/watch-listen/t…

@offgridtrailers Trying to take out 1 Yr Gaia GPS subscription offer, but it seems to want me to pay $60 upfront? Thanks! Paul

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@JamesMelville Yes, except if off-piste skiing. Notorious for blocking the signals from avalanche rescue beacons!! Yes- this is true

This is the best chocolate biscuit in the world. Do you agree?

This is very important: Were the blood tests in Lucy Letby's conviction flawed? @UnHerd unherd.com/newsroom/were-…

Good to see FND getting a mention by the UK prime minister

PMQ' today, @Keir_Starmer announces the government will be investing £350,000 in research on interventions which support people with Functional Neurological Disorders, to rehabilitate them within the community. Amazing news! #FND #FNDAwareness

‘How safe is the Letby verdict?’This is devastating new research into the weakness of the Letby prosecution. Please read it. unherd.com/2025/03/how-sa…

Revealed: the document never disclosed to Lucy Letby’s defence lawyers that casts fresh doubt on the safety of her convictions, and the life-threatening virus that ran rampant in the unit where she worked. Me and @LucyLetbyTrials for @unherd unherd.com/2025/03/how-sa…

@deb_cohen @NIH Seems to be back up and working again. Massive issue if it is lost

Nobody could blame the parents (only one of which has ever commented publicly since the outcry began) for having all kinds of emotions. None of them good. They own those babies, and their dashed hopes and memories, whether survived or deceased. We don’t. But we do all own British justice. And open justice. And we have a right and need to exercise it. And they must have no right to block it. (If indeed that is what they all want. I have my doubts). It’s a cheap and shallow shot for @WesStreeting to say that he stands with the parents, as if those who want the truth are against them. @wesstreeting @cheshirepolice and the CPS are repeatedly using the parents as a human shield to defend against the scrutiny of matters that are their own responsibilty. It’s getting rather revolting. I have a plan. @wesstreeting, crack on with making our hospitals safe. You have a lot to do. (You might want to look at the 14 experts’ report in this light. It’s your day job.) @shabanamahmood you are Lord Chancellor. Take a look at the letter of the group of 24 medics and scientists who warned you months ago that the Thirlwall Inquiry was in danger of being irrelevant because the Terms of Reference were too tight. You ignored that. How is that looking? How has that affected the parents? Love to hear what you are going to do. The Inquiry is now a zombie. Undead and dead at the same time. #lucyletby @ClarkeMicah @sarahknapton @guardian @legalmarkmc

"Lucy Letby and the kindness of expert strangers" A powerful piece in the Church of England Newspaper. "Letby was monstered, reminiscent of medieval women being demonised as witches and executed." churchnewspaper.com/wp-content/upl…

@drphilhammond How does that response square with Dr Evans, as identified by @DavidRoseUK in his article following speaking to the police, having repeatedly changed his opinion regarding some of the cases?

I find the response of Dr Evans deeply troubling. If he had said "I stand by my analysis but I also accept that other expert analyses may reach different conclusions to mine, and it's up to the court decide which is most plausible" then fine. But to dismiss the analysis of experts with far more recent experience and academic credentials than him who have viewed the same evidence as "flawed and erroneous" suggests a degree of dogma and certainty in his omnipotence that clearly convinced the police and the jury but is far from scientific.

"No medical evidence for Letby murders" This week's BMJ:

@drphilhammond theconversation.com/lucy-letby-cas…

Why did Letby and her defence team call no expert witnesses? Having read the transcripts, both barristers were very aggressive. Ben Myers did everything he could to destroy the credibility of Dewi Evans on the stand, arguing that he was making up causes of death as he went along without any solid forensic evidence, and changing his mind too. He then tried to get his evidence struck out at half time - before the defence had called witnesses - citing Judge Jackson's warnings of bias in a previous Evans' report, and arguing that venous air embolism in neonates was so rare that experts didn't exist in this area. He even submitted some written reports from his own expert, Dr Mike Hall, which argued for more plausible causes of death than murder in some cases. The prosecution objected and the judge ruled these weren't admissible as Hall had yet to take the stand, and then he rejected the half-time dismissal argument. Myers then had to decide whether to subject Hall - who was far more measured and less dogmatically certain than Evans - to the same aggressive castration he had attempted on Evans. He also had to decide whether it would look better to put one expert up against the six for the prosecution and seven Chester consultants convinced of her guilt, or none. He decided 13-0 was better than 13-1. He left Letby to be ripped to shreds by Nick Johnson. The tactic may have been to get Letby convicted on as many cases as possible, including those which better experts are now strongly arguing were not murder, to get everything over-turned on appeal. But given that there is no new evidence, this makes an appeal much less likely to happen... so quite a risky tactic and only Myers can give the true story. To be fair to him, he did make many of the points about alternative causes and lack of forensic evidence to support murder that experts are making now but because he is barrister, not an expert witness, none of what he said on the stand counted as evidence. Lesson one is clear - if you want expert evidence you need expert witnesses and it is an absolute travesty that neither side could find currently practising neonatal experts to interpret the case-notes and clinical findings. Had this happened independently as soon as the rise in deaths was noted, we wouldn't be in this mess now. Lesson two is that clinicians should not be investigating deaths they may be implicated in. We need a properly funded crash investigation team for the NHS and social care.

Those who know me will agree that I have always said there are issues. Not least the role of the "expert" witness. unherd.com/2025/02/why-th…

“Stupidity is knowing the truth, seeing the truth but still believing the lies. And that is more infectious than any other disease.” ~ Professor Richard Feynman

@JamesMelville Great man, remember studying him over 40 years ago, as true now as it was then.

@DavidRoseUK @LucyLetbyTrials @DavidDavisMP You also had a part in this David!

The Telegraph’s editorial says the Lucy Letby case must be referred to the Court of Aopeal, following the extraordinary presentation yesterday by Prof Shoo Lee. It’s right, and this is a moment of significance. Kudos @DavidDavisMP for making this happen. telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/0…