Context
The trial judge’s summing-up at the original trial began on 3 July 2023 and ran across several court days. The summing-up is the document that structures the evidence for the jury and gives the specific directions the jury is told it must follow. A near-verbatim archive is maintained by lucyletbyinnocence.com; this page summarises the parts of the summing-up most relevant to the post-conviction review.
How the evidence was framed
The summing-up walked the jury through the counts in sequence, presenting the prosecution theory for each and then the defence response. The judge reminded the jury that they were the sole judges of fact, that the burden of proof rested on the Crown, and that they must be sure of guilt on each individual count.
On expert evidence, the judge directed the jury to consider the witnesses’ expertise, consistency, and the limits of their opinions — but did not (and could not) direct the jury on the wider body of medical opinion that was not put before them, because it had not been adduced in evidence.
On the shift-rota chart, the jury were directed that it was a factual exhibit. The specific statistical concern — that the events plotted had been selected, in part, because Ms Letby was present — was not the subject of a specific direction, because the defence tactical decision at trial was to challenge the chart’s weight rather than the permissibility of its selection methodology. That decision is one of the matters now on the public record of post-conviction expert critique.
On the handwritten notes, the judge directed the jury that they were free to consider the notes as evidence of guilt, but also reminded them that the defence case was that the notes were stress-diary material.
What to read alongside this
the defence closing speech, the sentencing remarks, the Court of Appeal refusal (May 2024).