Independent Experts? Yeah Right.
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The notion that the prosecution’s experts in Lucy’s case were independent as they were legally obliged to be is laughable
The prosecution in Lucy’s case engaged seven medical specialists to provide expert (opinion based) testimony. Of the seven listed at the bottom of this post, it appears that only Evans and Bohin advertised their commercial expert witness services in the public domain. This however does not mean that the other five were not registered somewhere as willing to provide expert witness testimony, just that they registered this interest privately with an expert witness company that acted as their agent.
If you tell one of these companies/agents that you want a paediatric radiologist, they will then contact the paediatric radiologists on their books. For example, this document (https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Newsletter-Spring-2022.pdf) lists Dr Owen Arthurs (the prosecution’s expert radiologist in Lucy’s case) as being contactable on ExpertsLondon@ejudiciary.net even though you will not find him listed on https://www.ewi.org.uk/directory (referred to at the bottom of the document) or anywhere else. And here he is talking about being an expert witness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvl1ZqoZqsc.
Also, the notion that the prosecution’s experts were independent is laughable. If an expert does not support the prosecution’s case of guilt they will not get selected. And if they are not selected they will not get paid. This is, frankly, the mother of all conflicts of interest. This issue is particularly heinous in in Dewi Evans’ case since it was he who touted for the work, as jurors heard on 6 March:
On Tuesday, March 6, jurors were read an email sent by Dr Evans to the National Crime Agency (NCA) in May 2017, ahead of his involvement with Cheshire Police. In his message to “Nick” at the NCA’s national injuries database, Dr Evans wrote: “Incidentally I’ve read about the high rate of babies in Chester and that the police are investigating. “Do they have a paediatric/neonatal contact? I was involved in neonatal medicine for 30 years including leading the intensive care set-up in Swansea. I’ve also prepared numerous neonatal cases where clinical negligence was alleged. “If the Chester police had no-one in mind I’d be interested to help. Sounds like my kind of case. “I understand that the Royal College (of Paediatrics and Child Health) has been involved but from my experience the police are far better at investigating this sort of problem.”
Fieldfisher sets out the role of the expert witness and the test of an expert’s independence in https://www.fieldfisher.com/en/insights/expert-witnesses-the-independence-factor:
As an expert’s role is to assist the court, independence is key. Experts must be ‘uninfluenced by the pressures of litigation’ (CPR Practice Direction (PD) 35 (2.1)), and are duty-bound to provide ‘objective, unbiased opinions on matters within their expertise’ to resolve the proceedings, not assuming the role of an advocate. An expert’s duty to the court ‘overrides any obligation to the person from whom experts have received instructions or by whom they are paid’ (CPR 35.3 (2)). A useful test of ‘independence’ is that the expert would form and provide the same opinion had the instructions been provided by the opposing party in the proceedings.
(For those who wish to know more, the rules on expert witnesses in the courts of England and Wales are governed by Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) r.35. See https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part35).
As if touting for work was not bad enough, it was Evans himself who in December 2017 determined that crimes had been committed which meant the case would go to court and he would get paid.
From : https://news.sky.com/story/how-the-police-caught-lucy-letby-12933640
The force began to examine the deaths of 17 babies and the non-fatal collapses of 16 more, some of whom have been left with life-changing injuries. Tens of thousands of medical files were prepared for a neonatologist – an expert in young infants – found via the National Crime Agency.Then in December 2017, their expert came back with his response. These deaths were not the result of natural causes. Operation Hummingbird had begun.
The more of the 33 events Cheshire Police was examining that Evans could deem murders/attempted murders, the longer the trial would take, the more testimony he would have to provide, and the more he would get paid. Unfortunately (for him) he could only deem eight of the deaths as murders and six of the collapses as attempted murders.
Cheshire Police announced yesterday that an unnamed healthcare worker was being questioned in relation to the murder of eight babies and the attempted murder of a further six. It comes after police launched an investigation in May last year into the deaths of 17 babies and 15 non-fatal collapses at the Countess of Chester Hospital between March 2015 and July 2016.
Anyway, Dr E, you must have been furious that you couldn’t deem 19 of the events as crimes. Still, 14 is not a bad day’s work. You were still going to get paid a tidy sum.
By the way, Dr E, why did Sky News write that you were a neonatologist? Did you tell the police that’s what you were? Also, it wrote “neonatologist” not “retired neonatologist”. If you did not tell the police that you were a retired paediatrician which is what you were, that’s naughty.
The list of shame:
Title: Dr
First name: Dewi
Last name: Evans
Gender: M
Group: Medical
Subgroup: Doctor
Role/job: Consultant paediatrician (rtd)
Employer/association: Dewi Evans Paediatric Consulting Ltd (no website – https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07341254)
Commercial expert site: https://www.expertwitness.co.uk/expert/5763c7f0ca2f3af2228b5f41
Title: Dr
First name: Sandie
Last name: Bohin
Gender: F
Group: Medical
Subgroup: Doctor
Role/job: Consultant paediatrician
Employer/association: The Medical Specialist Group LLP (https://www.msg.gg/clinical-team/consultants/dr-sandie-bohin/)
Commercial expert site: https://paediatricexpert.com
Title: Prof
First name: Peter
Last name: Hindmarsh
Gender: M
Group: Medical
Subgroup: Doctor
Role/job: Endocrinologist (paediatric)
Employer/association: University College London Hospital (https://www.uclh.nhs.uk/our-services/find-consultant/professor-peter-hindmarsh )
Title: Dr
First name: Anna
Last name: Milan
Gender: F
Group: Medical
Subgroup: Doctor
Role/job: Clinical biochemist
Employer/association: Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust (http://pathlabs.rlbuht.nhs.uk/ccfram.htm)
Title: Prof
First name: Sally
Last name: Kinsey
Gender: F
Group: Medical
Subgroup: Doctor
Role/job: Haematologist (paediatric)
Employer/association: Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (https://www.leedsth.nhs.uk/a-z-of-services/leeds-cancer-centre/services/childrens-and-adolescent-oncology-and-haematology/services/haematology/) and St. James University Hospital (https://severe-chronic-neutropenia.org/en/partners/uk)
Title: Prof
First name: Owen
Last name: Arthurs
Gender: M
Group: Medical
Subgroup: Doctor
Role/job: Radiologist (paediatric)
Employer/association: Great Ormond Street Hospital (https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/our-people/staff-z/owen-arthurs/)
Title: Dr
First name: Andreas
Last name: Marnerides
Gender: M
Group: Medical
Subgroup: Doctor
Role/job: Patholigist (paediatric)
Employer/association: Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (https://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/our-consultants/andreas-marnerides)
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