‘Ghoulish sideshow’: Lucy Letby victims’ barrister speaks on parents’ behalf

Part of the opening statement of Richard Baker KC, a barrister speaking on behalf of the parents of Children C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, O, P and R:

“The position of the families in this inquiry is unique. They are anonymised by ciphers, as are their children. Some are concerned that this has the effect of dehumanising them in the eyes of the public and media, and has cultivated an environment where people feel able to express vile opinions through social media, an environment where the serial killer who murdered or attacked their children is, by contrast, humanised or even venerated.

“You’ve met the families, you will know that they’re real people, you will understand that they have a simple and reasonable aim to live normal lives as disconnected from a monster who harmed them as possible.

“They have no interest in becoming permanent attractions at a ghoulish sideshow. Their request is to be allowed to grieve in private or for their surviving children to never know of a role that they played in this story.

“More tragically still, they feel that revealing their identities would cause them to become the focus for ill will. What does society come to where the parents of murdered or injured children should live with this fear?

“Everybody who recklessly promotes conspiracy theories, or who parrots without questioning the same tired misconceptions about this case, should be ashamed of themselves.

“The families, along with the jury, collectively sat through 10 months of evidence – in the case of family K two trials. They did so with impressive dignity, they heard the evidence against her and have no doubt that she was guilty. The jury had no doubt that she was guilty.

Related: Lucy Letby conspiracy theorists ‘should be ashamed’, inquiry told

“The trial was overseen by an experienced high court judge and reviewed comprehensively with care by the court of appeal. This process, conducted with scrupulous fairness and with exhausting detail, is arrogantly ignored by those who criticise the outcome.

“Those individuals offer superficial opinions based upon second- or third-hand accounts, expressing conclusions that it may be generous to call on occasion half baked. In the meantime, the families, a jury, the judge, the court of appeal, and even the team who represented Letby at trial must remain silent while others use the losses suffered by those families as currency to build their own reputations.

“This is an intolerable burden for the families to bear; as I have said before, it is harmful and toxic to them.

“The complexity of the opening of this inquiry demonstrates the depth of analysis that is required to understand the events of the Countess of Chester hospital. This is not an issue to express casual opinions about.

“There is, however, some measure of relevance in this background noise … it reveals a common and basic cognitive bias as a society, we are too quick to make judgments based upon first impressions. We idolise or demonise those who fit our own stereotypes. We prefer our monsters to look like monsters, to be easy to identify and to be far removed from ourselves.

“It creates a profound cognitive dissonance when monsters do not fit a stereotype. It is sometimes hard to accept that evil can be banal. The cognitive biases of individuals who see a young woman working in a caring profession and cannot conceive of a darkness that may lay beneath the surface are easy to understand, but we should not be so naive.

“To be successful, a serial killer must hide in plain sight.

“In her opening, Rachel Langdale KC remarked upon the respect that so many patients expressed towards Harold Shipman, who they regarded as a diligent and caring doctor until, that is, the truth was known. We can add to that list many other superficially charming or apparently normal individuals who were later revealed to be monsters.

“It should be no surprise to this inquiry that insofar as other respectable and responsible professions may attract sexual predators, so healthcare professions may equally allow those harbouring malign or homicidal ideations to live out their fantasies unchecked.

“It is … thankfully rare, but it is a risk that hospitals and trusts should be alive to. In examining this issue, we should guard against the notion that a serial killer such as Letby was entirely unpredictable or unthinkable in 2015 and 2016. The counsel to inquiry was correct in her opening statement to refer to the case of Beverly Allitt; her name appears within a list that includes Harold Shipman, Colin Norris, Ben Geen and Victorino Chua.”