BBC bosses edit harrowing Lucy Letby documentary after dozens of complaints

A recent BBC Panorama documentary about the Lucy Letby case has been edited following complaints. Lucy Letby: Who to Believe? aired on August 11, but just days later, on August 15, the BBC were forced to concede that complaints made about the content of the Panorama special were valid, and they have now made alterations to the film. Letby, 35, is currently serving life in jail after being convicted of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of sevenothersbetween June 2015 and June 2016.

The first upheld complaint pertained to incorrect figures in respect of the percentage of ventilated shifts she had worked in the Liverpool Women's Hospital, in which babies' breathing tubes came out. "Panorama looked at two periods during which Lucy Letby had worked at Liverpool Women's Hospital in 2012 and 2015. The programme reported that a review by the hospital had found the nurse had worked approximately 50 ventilated shifts there and that babies' breathing tubes came out on around 20 of them, or 40 per cent. We have since learned that these figures are wrong," they acknowledged.

"The 40 per cent figure, which was first mentioned in the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024, only applies to her work at the hospital in 2015. We understand that the hospital's review found that in 2015, there were 11 ventilated shifts during which Lucy Letby was involved in the care of a baby. It also found that tubes became dislodged during four of these ventilated shifts, which is around 36 per cent.

"We understand that some breathing tubes also became dislodged on ventilated shifts where Lucy Letby was involved in the care of a baby, during her first period at Liverpool Women's Hospital in 2012.

"We don't have those figures, and we have now been told the rate during that period is substantially lower than 40 percent. We have re-edited the film to reflect all of this and to make our reporting of the hospital review clearer," they said.

"We did not conflate ventilated shifts with working or unit shifts, but accept our language could have been clearer. We have now made it explicitly clear that the review looked only at ventilated shifts," they confirmed.

The second issue saw them completely remove a line from the film. "In the programme, we also stated that the review found that babies' breathing tubes came out 40 times more often than normal when Lucy Letby was on shift. We have now removed that line from the programme and some associated commentary," their lengthy clarification continued.

"We have also made clear that Lucy Letby was in training during both periods at the Liverpool Women's Hospital.

"We originally stated that her supporters questioned the review's findings around Liverpool Women's Hospital, and this has now been changed to say that critics say the hospital's findings are not credible and that there are a number of reasons why breathing tubes could become dislodged more often," they said, addressing the final issue.

The broadcaster posted the details of the issues on the Corrections and Clarifications section of its website. For a complaint to merit publication online, a show must have garnered at least 100 complaints.