How ludicrous to live in a land where the King pardons a long dead killer but we can’t give Lucy Letby a fair hearing, writes PETER HITCHENS

What a strange country this is; While the King may pardon Ruth Ellis, a long-dead murderer, Lucy Letby, a living, breathing woman, convicted in a dubious case torn to shreds by an army of experts, sits in prison for months while the rusty wheels of justice fail to turn.

No real evidence has ever emerged against Miss Letby; A number of bizarre and increasingly unconvincing theories have emerged as to how he could have committed the crimes for which he was merely imprisoned. This fabricated melodrama, exposed to the light of day and concrete facts, is rapidly losing its power over the public mind. Even the Crown Prosecution Service turned down an attempt to charge him with further crimes.

Why is Lucy Letby still waiting for the courts to change? This question becomes more urgent every day. A few days ago my colleague Kathryn Knight reported in The Mail on Sunday the surprising story that Miss Letby, an allegedly evil mass murderer, was actually the healthcare professional who intervened twice to save the two grateful parents’ baby daughter, Jessica.

Now a heartbreaking report from BBC Radio 4 claims many other parents are horrified by the treatment they received at the same hospital, the Countess of Chester.

Their problems had nothing to do with Lucy Letby, whom they had never met. Let’s not forget that world-famous neonatal doctor Shoo Lee said that if the hospital was in his home country, Canada, it would be closed when he showed him evidence of how the hospital was run.

And in 2015, two years before Ms Letby was suspended, a pediatrician at the hospital warned her chief executive that the neonatal unit where Lucy Letby worked was chaotic, overstretched and unsafe for patients and staff.

Dr Alison Timmis emailed chief executive Tony Chambers in December 2015 to say staff were reduced to tears as they had to care for more babies than the unit could safely accommodate.

He wrote: ‘Over the past few weeks I have seen many of my medical and nursing colleagues in tears… they are upset because they know the care they provide has fallen below their high standards.’ Staff were ‘chronically overworked’ and felt no one was listening.

He continued: ‘This is not an extraordinarily busy week… This is now our normal way of working and it is not safe. Things are getting thinner and thinner and are reaching breaking point. ‘When things go wrong the casualties will be either the lives of children or the mental and physical health of our staff.’

This will come as no surprise to many families who have had experience of NHS maternity care over the last few years. Reports are piling up. However, Ms Letby’s trial overcame this difficulty.

The Countess of Chester’s problems, prosecutors argued, could be better explained by the presence of a determined serial killer of unspeakable evil who secretly and skillfully spread death throughout the ward.

Direct evidence has now emerged that the hospital was experiencing major problems at the time of Ms Letby’s alleged murder. BBC Radio 4’s File On Four program on Tuesday night produced deeply distressing revelations that things had gone terribly wrong. Knowing from members of my own family that maternity care on the NHS was in crisis, I listened with horror and surprise to hear that such things could happen in our so-called developed country.

I hope the new Health Minister, Yvette Cooper, will also take the time to listen. The program, which can be easily listened to online, interviewed several suffering mothers there. Their calculations are appalling.

They talk about unprepared care, the absence of nurses and doctors, indifference about symptoms. One mother was even told to clean up blood that dripped onto the floor when her cannula accidentally came off.

Another, Freya Somerton, recalled being told as soon as she went into labor that ‘a consultant would be monitoring her very closely because she had some health issues and because her baby had not been moving much during the pregnancy. But it didn’t happen.

Lucy Letby was the healthcare professional who intervened twice to save Jessica Bolton.

A pediatrician warned two years before Ms Letby was suspended that the hospital was chaotic, overcrowded and unsafe for patients and staff

‘We did not meet with a consultant even though our risk was high.’ Later, during the birth, she says, staff used facial wipes to mop up ‘bright red blood everywhere’. ‘And at this point I’m really suffering too. The baby’s head still hasn’t moved. ‘We were eventually seen by a registrar.’ I will not describe here the terrible circumstances under which Freya says she finally met a real counselor.

The inquest ruled that her baby Oscar died of natural causes. He says he died of neglect.

Cat Hughes, another mother interviewed, also had a grueling experience. She gave birth to her second child at another hospital and said the care there was much better. She believes the outcome could have been much worse for her and her daughter than it actually was. And it had a lasting impact on him.

In the Lucy Letby case it is clear that the quality of maternity care at this hospital was not properly taken into account. The prosecution’s chief medical expert witness, Dr. Dewi Evans told presenter Stephanie Hegarty that she had not seen the full birth notes of any of the babies whose deaths were included in the Letby case.

If he had done so, he would have had a more comprehensive picture of their serious health conditions before Letby allegedly interfered with their treatment. As it happened, after finding him guilty, the Prosecution did not use the notes and therefore they were not released to the Defense.

Ms Hegarty says the parents involved in her investigation ‘are not part of this case and have never met Letby’. But that’s not the point. The thing is, a serial killer wouldn’t be needed to explain the alarming number of infant deaths in a place like this.

The BBC forwarded the mothers’ complaints to the Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust. In response, Deputy Chief Executive Sue Pemberton said she apologized unreservedly to families who had a bad experience with their care. She said: ‘We note that the cases discussed relate to maternity care between 2015 and 2020 and if families feel their concerns have not been addressed I would encourage them to contact the Trust.’ He added that the trust had made significant improvements and was now nationally accredited for its ‘family integrated care approach’.

Let’s hope that this hospital and many others improve as a result of increased public interest in maternity services. It is surprising that billions of pounds can be spent on an NHS that is struggling so much to deliver this most important task. But it is even more surprising that, despite months of explanations, Lucy Letby still clearly does not have the charm she should have.