A doctor who gave crucial expert evidence about insulin poisoning for the prosecution of the nurse Lucy Letby was under investigation by the GMC- medical regulator at the time due to serious concerns about his fitness to practise.
The General Medical Council (GMC) opened an investigation into concerns about Prof Peter Hindmarsh, including that he had harmed patients, on the first day he gave evidence at Letby’s trial in late 2022. The GMC investigation was still continuing when Hindmarsh gave evidence for a second time at the Letby trial three months later. Great Ormond Street hospital reported Hindmarsh to the GMC after a formal investigation led by his main employer, University College London hospitals trust (UCLH).
The jury in the trial of the nurse, who was convicted of murdering babies in the Countess of Chester hospital’s neonatal unit, was never informed about any investigation into Hindmarsh, one of the prosecution’s key witnesses.
While the GMC conducted its investigation, and during some of the period when Hindmarsh gave evidence, a medical tribunal ordered severe restrictions on his work, saying that he “may pose a real risk” to members of the public. The tribunal also considered the allegations about Hindmarsh “may have the potential to impact on his ability to act as an expert witness”.
The Crown Prosecution Service told the defence it would oppose any attempt to inform the jury of the GMC investigation, on the basis that the allegations had not reached a final adjudication. Ultimately the GMC investigation was never concluded, because Hindmarsh removed himself from the GMC register, a process known as “voluntary erasure”. That effectively ended the investigation, and there was no regulatory finding against him.
Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others, over two trials in 2023 and 2024. She was sentenced to 15 whole-life terms in prison. Court of appeal judges turned down her applications to appeal. She has always maintained she is innocent, and many of her supporters believe she was scapegoated for medical failings on the unit.
Since the convictions, dozens of leading UK and international medical and scientific experts have argued that the prosecution’s medical case, including Hindmarsh’s evidence, was wrong. Dr Shoo Lee, a renowned Canadian neonatologist who argues that the prosecution misrepresented his own research, last year delivered findings of a 14-member expert panel. They found unanimously that the babies died or collapsed due to natural causes and poor care on the unit, that there had been no evidence of murders, nor insulin poisoning or any other deliberate harm.
Hindmarsh appeared twice as a key witness for the prosecution during Letby’s first trial, which took place between October 2022 and August 2023. He was an expert witness for the prosecution’s case that Letby attempted to murder two babies, referred to as F and L. Hindmarsh’s evidence supported the case that both babies had been poisoned with insulin injected into their fluid feed bags. But the jury was never told that in the months leading up to the trial, Hindmarsh had been facing allegations at the two hospitals that threatened to tarnish his reputation and undermine his credibility. He was, by then, still at UCLH, but no longer working at Great Ormond Street; his contract had been terminated four months earlier, in July 2022.
When he was first introduced in court by the prosecution’s lead barrister, Nick Johnson KC, Hindmarsh confirmed he was a consultant at UCLH ( though failed to say his practise was currently subject to investigation as a result of major concerns and was subject to supervision and restrictions). Neither were the jury informed of the allegations of professional misconduct against him. In the months before he gave evidence, UCLH had been leading a formal investigation into Hindmarsh.
Then, on 15 November 2022, Great Ormond Street, which had been feeding into the UCLH-led investigation, referred “multiple and wide-ranging concerns about Prof Hindmarsh’s practice” to the GMC.
Leaked documents detail allegations raised about Hindmarsh include “identified cases where harm to patients has been alleged”, and concerns including his “diagnosis and treatment of patients”, “use of treatments in unusual age groups, without adequate monitoring”, “inappropriate investigations” and inadequate documentation. The GMC tribunal stated: “In all the circumstances the tribunal considers that there is information to suggest that Prof Hindmarsh may pose a real risk to members of the public, if he were permitted to return to unrestricted clinical practice, given the number and nature of the concerns, involving paediatric [child] patients....The tribunal is mindful that the concerns raised about Prof Hindmarsh’s practice include his documentation, his diagnosis and management of patients. It considers that these areas of Prof Hindmarsh’s practice may have the potential to impact on his ability to act as an expert witness.”
Hindmarsh made his second appearance at the Letby trial on 24 February 2023. The jury remained uninformed about the GMC investigation, the UCLH-led investigation, the restrictions on him practising, or any of the concerns at the two hospitals.
Hindmarsh’s evidence for the prosecution appears to have been pivotal in the trial. The prosecution said that the insulin cases were “incontrovertible” evidence that someone was deliberately endangering the babies and that this could inform the jury’s view about other babies’ deaths. In summing up, the judge also told the jury that if they were sure about deliberate harm in any one case, they were entitled to infer the same in other babies, even if the precise cause was not known. These insulin cases were the first on which the jury reached a guilty verdict, and were two of only three guilty verdicts that were unanimous. The insulin cases stood out for other reasons, too. Unlike other parts of the prosecution, which were based on circumstantial evidence, the case presented to the jury was that the allegations of insulin poisoning were based on scientific blood test results.
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