R v Anthony — Court of Appeal judgment (April 2005)

Summary of the April 2005 Court of Appeal judgment in R v Anthony. Donna Anthony was acquitted of the murder of her two infant children after the Criminal Cases Review Commission referred her case back to the Court of Appeal. Unlike Clark and Cannings, whose acquittals came via direct second appeal, Anthony's acquittal came via CCRC referral — the same statutory route the October 2025 Letby application is taking. Anthony's case is the direct procedural precedent for the Letby CCRC application.

Last updated 2026-04-22

10 min read

Context

The Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) judgment in R v Anthony was handed down on 11 April 2005, quashing Donna Anthony’s 1998 conviction for the murder of her two infant children. Unlike Sally Clark and Angela Cannings, whose acquittals came via second direct appeals, Anthony’s acquittal came after the Criminal Cases Review Commission referred her case back to the Court of Appeal.

The procedural route

Anthony’s first appeal had been dismissed in 2000. Following the Clark and Cannings acquittals in 2003, the CCRC reviewed her case and referred it under section 13 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995. The real-possibility test was met on the basis that the subsequent acquittals had exposed the framework on which her conviction rested.

Why this precedent matters for Letby

The Letby first direct appeal was dismissed in May 2024. The October 2025 Mark McDonald KC CCRC application is following the Anthony procedural route. The precedent establishes that a first-appeal dismissal does not foreclose later review via CCRC, and that subsequent shifts in the expert-evidence framework can ground a section 13 referral.

The expert-evidence shift in Letby is larger

The Anthony CCRC application was supported by the Clark and Cannings acquittals. The Letby CCRC application is supported by the Shoo Lee Panel report, the Joint Insulin Report, more than thirty-one independent expert reports, the Thirlwall Inquiry evidence, and sustained peer-reviewed literature response. On the section 13 threshold standard that produced the Anthony acquittal, the Letby application meets and exceeds it.

The personal cost reminder

Donna Anthony died in 2010, five years after her acquittal, at the age of 36. Sally Clark died in 2007, four years after her acquittal, at 42. The personal cost of wrongful convictions served under severe sentences is documented. The CCRC process is slow by structural necessity; its outcome, when it corrects wrongful convictions, comes at substantial personal cost even after correction.

Read alongside

Donna Anthony — biography, The Anthony parallel analysis, CCRC review explained, Court of Appeal referral mechanics.