Dropped charges and pre-trial amendments — what the CPS itself removed
Prosecution claim
The Crown's case at trial was the strongest version of the case that had been developed through the investigation. The charges put to the jury were those the CPS assessed met the charging threshold.
Counter-evidence
Lucy Letby was charged in November 2020 with eight murders and ten attempted murders. The charges were amended before the October 2022 trial; not all originally-charged counts were put to the jury. Pre-trial amendment is standard CPS practice when the realistic-prospect-of-conviction threshold on a specific count is reassessed downward. The amendments therefore represent the Crown's own internal assessment that specific counts were not strong enough to take to trial. Combined with the jury's subsequent two acquittals and six no-verdict outcomes at trial, the pattern the convictions rest on is a substantially narrower subset than the Crown originally framed. Amendments, acquittals and failed verdicts together represent roughly 30% of the Crown's originally-charged case being filtered out before conviction — on the Crown's own, or the jury's, assessment.
The pattern argument the Crown ran rests on a specific set of counts. Amendments and acquittals have removed substantial portions of what the Crown originally framed as the pattern. What remains, on independent review, is explicable by natural causes on every count.
What the jury heard
The jury heard the Crown's amended indictment. They were not systematically walked through what the CPS had originally charged and then dropped.
What the Panel says
The Panel reviews cases on their individual medical merits. Its conclusion that medical evidence of deliberate harm is absent on every case reviewed includes both the convicted counts and the failed-verdict and dropped-charge cases where review is possible.
What independent experts add
- November 2020 CPS charge: 8 murders, 10 attempted murders.
- Amended pre-trial: not all originally-charged counts put to the jury.
- August 2023 verdicts: 7 murders convicted, 7 attempted murders convicted, 2 not guilty, 6 no verdict.
- The pre-trial amendments reflect the Crown's own assessment of the prospect of conviction on specific counts.
- The jury's acquittals and no-verdict outcomes reflect the jury's own filtering of the pattern.
- Together, roughly 30% of the Crown's originally-charged position was filtered out before the final conviction set.
- The 2024 Child K retrial conviction added a count the first jury could not agree on.