THE world’s top confession expert has quit the National Crime Agency to give evidence that Lucy Letby’s scrawled notes are NOT admissions of guilt.
The neonatal nurse’s scribbled notes, which were found in her home by police, included the phrases: “I am evil I did this” and “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them and I am a horrible evil person”.
They were put before the jury as confessions by the prosecution and formed a cornerstone of convicting Letby of seven murders, for which she is now serving 15 whole-life sentences.
But Professor Gisli Gudjonsson – THE world expert on the forensic psychology of confessions – has said the notes should not be seen as a confession.
He feels so strongly about the case – claimed by experts to be the greatest miscarriage of justice of the century – he has quit the National Crime Agency over conflicts of interest with the case so he could give evidence to try and clear Letby’s name.
Prof. Gudjonsson said: “I had to resign to do justice to this case – it was in the interests of justice and fairness.
KNIFE HORROR
Student stabbed to death at uni as teen arrested over ‘very serious incident’
FALL HORROR
Woman accused ex of ‘taking everything’ in £2.7m fight before tragic suicide
“I had already seen Lucy, and later realised there was a potential conflict of interest because of my role at the NCA.
“I didn’t know they had been involved in the case so I had to decide whether to withdraw from the case or resign from a job I loved.
“I couldn’t just withdraw because there was a case in Northern Ireland where I declined to produce a report and it was misinterpreted as evidence of guilt.
“I became concerned that withdrawing from this case could similarly be misrepresented.
“So I faced a choice: do I give up a job I love, or do I risk jeopardising the case? I could not risk jeopardising the case.
“I made a sacrifice in good faith and resigned. I do not regret it, although I am sad because I loved the job and my colleagues.”
Prof. Gudjonsson, 78, was working for the NCA on a consultancy basis to train cops in how to avoid false confessions.
However, the agency had ties to the Letby case which means he would not have been able to give evidence on her behalf.
After meeting her he was persuaded her notes did not amount to confessions.
Prof Gudjonsson said: “It is an admission, not a confession. A confession requires explanation of why and how. That is not present here.”
He adds: “So why does she write, ‘I killed them on purpose’? Because she is not good enough, and therefore if she had been better, if she had realised she was not good enough, then it must have been her fault.
“This is about self-blame. It is not about an intention to kill babies. I do not believe it has anything to do with that.
“It has to do with her feeling she was not good enough, and that the babies died because she was not good enough as a nurse or in her job.
“That is how I read the note. When I look at that so-called incriminating note, what I see is complete despair.
“If you take one word or one sentence out of context, such as ‘I’m evil, I did this,’ it may appear incriminating.
“But you have to look at the rest of the note, where she says, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong,’ ‘I hate myself,’ ‘I’m not good enough.’
“That note, in my opinion, has no evidential value. It has personal meaning. It expresses distress. She even expresses uncertainty.
“Taking sentences out of it and saying ‘this is all there is’ is misleading.”
He adds: “So when she uses words like ‘murderer’ or ‘evil,’ these have personal meaning.
“You cannot take ‘I’m a murderer’ as a factual confession. If she had written, ‘I murdered those babies, this is why I did it, and this is how I did it,’ that would be different. But there is nothing like that.
“There is no explanation of why or how. Therefore, this is not a confession. It is an admission of feeling evil, but not a confession.
“A confession requires explanation. This does not have that. These are spontaneous thoughts from someone being psychologically tormented.”
Prof. Gudjonsson’s incredible reputation has seen him give evidence for the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six and, last year, Oliver Campbell, who had his conviction for murder quashed by the Court of Appeal.
His view of the Letby confession notes could now be crucial to the case being referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).
He added: “Lucy told me that the notes she had written were private and had nothing to do with the babies.
“They had to do with her organising whether she had made mistakes in her work, whether she had not been entirely competent, and whether there was something she could have done to save the baby.
“It was about self-doubt. It was about whether she had made a mistake, whether she had not been good enough.”