Lucy Letby’s previous attempts to appeal her convictions have been refused, and she is currently serving whole‑life sentences, but a new route to challenge her case is now in motion through the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), not the normal appeal courts.

Quick Scoop: What happened to Lucy Letby’s appeal?

1. What appeals has she already tried?

  • Letby has twice tried to get permission to appeal her convictions through the usual Court of Appeal process, and both applications were refused.
  • Those earlier appeal bids focused mainly on alleged errors in how the trial was run, rather than on new medical evidence.
  • As a result, her original convictions and sentences remain fully in force, and she is still imprisoned at HMP Bronzefield on multiple whole‑life orders.

2. So is there a current appeal?

  • There is no fresh, active appeal hearing in the Court of Appeal right now; instead, the focus has shifted to the CCRC, which is a separate body that investigates possible miscarriages of justice.
  • In early 2025, barrister Mark McDonald lodged a preliminary application with the CCRC on Letby’s behalf, arguing that she was wrongly convicted.
  • The CCRC has confirmed it has received this application and has begun assessing it, expecting further submissions from her legal team.

3. What is the CCRC actually doing?

  • The CCRC’s job is not to decide guilt or innocence, but to decide whether there is “new evidence or new argument” that creates a real possibility the Court of Appeal would quash a conviction or reduce a sentence.
  • In Letby’s case, they are treating the matter as high priority because of the seriousness of the crimes and the intense public interest, but they’ve warned that reviewing the large volume of evidence could easily take a year or more.
  • Only if they decide that threshold is met will they refer her case back to the Court of Appeal; until then, nothing changes legally.

4. How does the medical expert panel affect this?

  • In February 2025, an international panel of 14 medical experts released findings saying they found “no medical evidence to support malfeasance” and that the deaths and collapses were more consistent with natural causes or poor medical care, not deliberate harm.
  • They also said there was no medical evidence that Letby injected air into babies’ bloodstreams, one of the key mechanisms alleged at trial, and highlighted serious systemic problems at the hospital.
  • Supporters of Letby see this as powerful new support for an appeal, but others argue that the original jury heard a much wider range of evidence (texts, behaviour around collapses, patterns of involvement) that goes beyond the medical debate.

5. Where things stand right now (early 2026)

  • Letby remains convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder several others, with her convictions upheld after two failed attempts to appeal.
  • Prosecutors recently confirmed that there will be no further criminal charges brought against her over other suspected incidents, which means the focus is now firmly on post‑conviction review rather than new trials.
  • Her only live route to challenge her convictions is the CCRC application; no court has yet agreed to re‑open or retry the case, and any possible referral and retrial—if it ever happens—would still be some way off.

6. Forum and public discussion (multiviewpoint snapshot)

“If the expert panel says no malfeasance, how can she still be in prison?” – a question often raised in online discussions.

  • Some commentators argue the expert panel’s conclusions should trigger a fresh look at the case and see the CCRC application as a vital safety net against a potential miscarriage of justice.
  • Others, including many bereaved parents, find the ongoing speculation deeply distressing and emphasize that the criminal courts, after long trials and full evidence, found her guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
  • Legal analysts note that even with the new medical critique, overturning the convictions will be extremely difficult, because appeal courts are reluctant to disturb jury verdicts unless the new material is exceptionally strong and clearly undermines the safety of the convictions.

7. What to watch for next

If you’re tracking “what happened to Lucy Letby’s appeal” as a trending topic and want to understand what actually matters legally, the key milestones to look for are:

  1. Any formal CCRC update saying whether her case will be referred to the Court of Appeal or not.
  1. If referred, whether the Court of Appeal grants permission for a full hearing and on what grounds (for example, new medical evidence, alleged procedural unfairness, or both).
  1. Any interaction between the CCRC process, the findings of the independent medical panel, and the ongoing public inquiry (like the Thirlwall Inquiry), which is examining what happened at the hospital and how concerns were handled.

If you’d like, I can help you turn this into a shorter “forum‑style” summary or a tight news‑style brief focused on the key dates and decisions.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.