Lucy Letby: Thirlwall Inquiry report publication pushed back
The final report from the public inquiry which examined how serial killer Lucy Letby was able to commit her crimes on a hospital neonatal unit will not be published until "early 2026".The former nurse, 35, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.Lady Justice Thirlwall, the chair of the inquiry, had previously said she hoped her findings would be released in November.However, a statement issued on the Thirlwall Inquiry website said publication was now expected next year.
Lady Thirlwall is expected to write to those criticised in the final report in September and the document is due to be completed by the end of November, according to the statement."The report will then undergo copy editing and typesetting, ahead of publication in early 2026," it added.
Letby, from Hereford, lost two bids last year to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal.The Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, is considering evidence presented on Letby's behalf from an international panel of medics who claim poor medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the babies collapsing.Lawyers for the families of Letby's victims have dismissed the panel's conclusions as "full of analytical holes" and "a rehash" of the defence case heard at trial.Cheshire Constabulary is continuing a review of deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neonatal units of the Countess of Chester and Liverpool Women's Hospital during Letby's time as a nurse from 2012 to 2016.A separate probe by the force into corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter at the Countess of Chester Hospital also remains ongoing.
Read more stories from Cheshire on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC North West on X. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
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EXCLUSIVE We're the spy mums - we hunt down cheaters and solve mysteries the cops won't touch as private investigators, but we're still home in time for the school run
Forget James Bond, Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot, these glamorous mums from Essex can give any famous detective a run for their money. Former police officers Sam Hutchinson, 56, and Emma Coles, 40, set up their private investigations industry Verity Henton in April 2020 and, they tell MailOnline, they've 'never looked back'. Alongside juggling the school run (Sam has nine-year-old twins, while Emma has two daughters aged nine and 12), their days can be filled with anything from hunting down cheaters and exposing catfishing scams to solving stalker cases for some of the world's wealthiest people. One moment Sam and Emma will be dropping their kids off at school - and the next they'll be hurriedly adopting a disguise to chase down a suspect, or furiously trying to solve a case while getting their nails done at the salon. No one would ever suspect the smiley and gorgeous best friends of secretly operating a growing network of covert operations. This, the spy mums explain, is their secret weapon. Speaking to MailOnline, Emma said: 'You're just not suspected of anything. If myself or Sam were hanging around at a tube station and pretending that we're on the phone, nobody would think anything. 'But if there was a guy standing there for a couple of hours, it would be different. I think people feel a lot safer about women.' 'We can just get away with blending into those environments,' Sam adds. 'Nobody's threatened by us!' In actual fact, Sam and Emma will be hard at work in the midst of a covert operation - which can consist of anything from surveillance, desktop work, open source intelligence, tracking digital footprints, and organising their trained team of operatives. The pair are unafraid of playing the damsel in distress or acting 'dumb or ditsy' if they think it will give them the information they need to help their clients. The mystery-solvers first met in the Essex police force, working in anti-corruption, which Sam said 'is like the secret part of Line Of Duty'. After having children and subsequently leaving the police force, they 'met up in Tescos a couple of times' before realising they wanted to use their skills and expertise for the greater good. Thus, Verity Henton was born and, as Emma explained, they were 'busy from day one'. At first, they disliked the name 'spy mums' and thought it made them seem like a 'joke' - but now, they realise it's an apt summary of what they do and aim to achieve. On balancing their rather unusual day job with looking after the kids, Emma said in many ways it feels like they're living 'double lives'. Sam says: 'We're busy mums, we've got both got children at school. We need to be there for the school pick up if we can. We're zooming around everywhere. 'When the children go to bed, that's when we're up all night working. It's challenging, but no more challenging than any working mum.' Emma added: 'We still do things we want to do, like going to the gym and nail appointments and things like that, so it's quite flexible, but we are busy as well. 'So in a nail appointment or hair appointment, for instance, we will still be working. We'll still be on the phone to clients and working on the job. 'I was running a job yesterday and getting my nails done at the same time. So, just every now and then I'd say, look, I just need to send a message.' 'You're having to put on a few different hats.' The children themselves, know 'everything' and also want to be spies when they grow up. But when they tell the other children and teachers at school that 'my mum's a spy', no one believes them and they've been told 'not to tell fibs'. The spy mums' clients can be anyone from an 'everyday person' seeking proof of a cheating partner to 'Arab princes' and foreign royals in need of a special covert service. At the moment, they're especially popular with clients of a high net worth - and are repeatedly being sort out by celebrities, for contracts in the entertainment world, and have been hired as the main private investigators for several big corporations. One recent example, Sam says, is when they were hired by a 'very very popular' celebrity when they visited London, who wanted to make sure their stalker came nowhere near them. Sam and Emma were able to make sure that they kept tabs on the stalker and ensure they didn't cross a boundary. They still equally work with 'normal everyday people', adding that they treat their clients the same, no matter who they are. Among their craziest cases are the catfishing scams, of which they've seen a rapid increase in recent years. Emma said: 'We've had a lot of clients who've paid hundreds of thousands of pounds because they think they're in a relationship with a celebrity.' One woman came to them believing she was in a relationship with Marti Pellow, the lead singer of Wet Wet Wet. Convinced she was in a loving and committed relationship with the frontman, she had 'bought a house' in Windsor, believing she would live there with Marti. In fact, she'd paid around £69,000 into a Bitcoin account as 'Marti' said his funds were tied up - but that he'd pay her back so they could start their new life together. Another believed she was in a relationship with Hollywood actor Luke Evans, also paying vast sums each month into a Bitcoin account while working two jobs and racking up debt. 'This went on for years and years and years and she honestly believed that he was in love with her and that it was a real person,' Emma said. When Sam and Emma exposed the truth, the woman was 'devastated'. The spy mums recalled: 'She still desperately wanted to believe it and I think because she'd been hooked in for so many years, she'd been through quite a traumatic relationship prior to that, she was just clinging on to a little bit of hope that somebody loved her. 'We still support her now and we still hear from her.' Their favourite cases are the infidelity ones, where they catch cheaters. Sometimes, they'll be employed by a paranoid partner - and can prove no infidelity is taking place. The detective services can cost anywhere between £500 for static surveillance to £10,000 if it takes 'weeks and weeks', but there's no one size fits all. Much of their work now comes to them through cases that the police 'do nothing about'. Emma said: 'The police don't have the resources they used to have. We are finding more and more now that people are coming to us because they've reported a burglary or theft or something to the police and the police have done nothing about it. 'They don't even send an officer out to take a statement or anything like that. 'So we will then do the job of the police. Obviously, the client has to pay us for it, but they're then getting the results.' It will then be up to Sam and Emma to help their client gather the evidence, which they can then pass over to the police. The PI industry in the UK is unlicensed and unregulated and, in fact, anyone can set themselves up as a private investigator. Through Verity Henton, Sam and Emma are registered with The Association Of British Investigators, which they compare to the 'Kennel Club for dog buying'. In many ways, the two would appear an unlikely solution to the country's crimes - and the two admit of their own volition that they're 'very, very different to any other private investigation company'. 'Most are stereotypical and most are ex-military guys who don't really know how to talk to the clients,' the duo tell MailOnline. 'They don't offer that kind of level of emotional support either.' Sam said: 'Also, being detectives, having spent our lives looking for answers and searching for the truth, all our lives looking for evidence, we have that built in ability to look outside the box and to explore every avenue. 'We won't just sit outside the house watching for 10 hours to go, no, no one's in. 'We'll be round the back, we'll be over the top, we're making phone calls, we'll be doing everything because we need to know the answers and that's what we get for our clients.' Sam recalled she managed to go through about 'seven different disguises' in one day during a surveillance job - jumping on the tube in her running stuff, before purchasing a last-minute outfit from a shop before going into a café, and changing once more before entering a 'posh golf club'. Far from being exhausting, the pair insist they have 'so much fun' and insist it's thoroughly rewarding. Sam says people have told them that their work 'saves lives' and they've saved others 'millions' - for example after looking into a 'sugar daddy' who found out one of his 'babies' was being disloyal. 'Although we are having fun, and this is literally the best job in the world, it's all about the clients and getting the absolute best results for them,' they say. Five years in, and Verity Henton has seen many changes since it first launched. These days, Sam and Emma tend to do less of the actual surveillance work themselves and focus more on being the face of the business - with a team of around 100 operatives they can rely on. For Verity Henton, the future seems bright: Emma and Sam are hoping to expand to New York in the near future ('the Americans will love us!') and they're even set to be the subject of a thrilling new TV drama with a 'big production company'. It's clearly been much more profitable than a life in the police force. 'We work really hard and it does pay off,' says Emma.
