Lucy Letby and the Power and Limits of Expertise
Location:
Online only
Date/time
Tue 17 March 2026
13:00 - 14:00
About the event
Lucy Letby, a neonatal nurse, was convicted of the murders of seven infants and the attempted murders of seven others in her care. In Letby v R [2024] EWCA Crim 748, the Court of Appeal considered evidential rulings from a trial dominated by expert medical opinion amid rare clinical events and complex causation. This talk asks how far courts should lean on expertise, what cross-examination can and cannot do and which safeguards best protect fair-trial rights. Set against Letby’s application before the Criminal Cases Review Commission, continuing claims of miscarriage of justice and the forthcoming publication of the Thirlwall Inquiry report, this talk considers what Letby reveals about the power and limits of expert evidence in the criminal courts.
About the speaker
Professor Amel is a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Oxford (2024–2027) and a full-time Professor of Law at the University of Liverpool, with internationally recognised expertise in health law, particularly the regulation of reproduction and assisted reproduction and the intersection of criminal and medical law. Her high-impact research has been cited by the UK Supreme Court and widely featured in major media outlets. More recently, she has expanded her work into education law, focusing on the healthcare and educational rights of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND); this includes leading an NIHR-funded project on the impact of COVID-19 on children with SEND that received multiple national awards and informed parliamentary inquiries and government policy, including the SEND Green Paper. Alongside her research, Amel is an award-winning educator and is passionate about teaching and making the academy inclusive.
Image credit: Freepik