It would be remarkable if the name Lucy Letby isn’t now known to most people in the UK, or indeed around the globe.
The trial of the nurse, found guilty of the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six more, has made for harrowing reading. It has been announced that a statutory inquiry – where people can be compelled to give evidence – will look into the circumstances at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
I cannot imagine what the families must be going through and I think this story will dominate the headlines for many months to come in one form or another. My perspective focuses on the way Cheshire Police have handled the media. Speaking purely from an outside vantage point, it felt like the media got everything they needed from the police, who released updated press statements, as often as they could, in what was a very complex case. That is not an easy task. Moreover, once the trial and sentencing had concluded, I found the police had created and released a YouTube video: The Investigation Behind the Conviction of Lucy Letby. You can view it below.
The hour long video makes for compelling viewing. Hours after release it had 145 views, by mid-August 105,000 people had viewed it. I have seen at least two national headline articles based on the information provided in the video, which contains interviews with the investigation team, including witness support, family liaison officers, case investigators, and those responsible for collating the reams of evidence bundles for the prosecution.
The video also shows how investigators used the work done around the Manchester Arena Inquiry and the Hillsborough Inquests to inform their approach. To be able to see the degree of preparation and work that had gone into a six-year investigation, now entering its second phase, was very valuable from a communications perspective. It outlined numerous complexities in a way that is accessible to a very wide audience, a crucial part of communications. It offered a perspective around how and why the numerous cases were treated differently, and individually investigated, before officers came together to look at them more as a group.
Lots has been and will be written and broadcast by others, but we want to bring you our side of the story created internally by the communication team and with exclusive access to the investigations team.
Cheshire Police Force
According to Cheshire Police Force, “lots has been and will be written and broadcast by others, but we want to bring you our side of the story created internally by the communication team and with exclusive access to the investigations team.”
In my opinion, issuing the video, giving all the information and access to the team in this way, was an inspired and sensitive thing to do. It enabled the Cheshire police to take control of the narrative around the inquiry and direct it to audiences immediately without any editing by the media.
I am sure the press office team were understandably inundated with requests for interviews with officers. So to create a video with everyone involved, whilst also providing a glimpse behind the scenes in such a complex investigation, was not only really creative but also helped the media with their many questions. It will also have meant that the public were able to directly access what Cheshire Police wanted to release without any form of editing or filter, which I think is really valuable.
Accessing the public through social media rather than the press is a step more and more organisations are taking. Such engagement means that they receive instant feedback. There are currently 563 comments on the video.
This video has reached officers, staff, other forces, the public, journalists, and tells the whole story over an extensive timeline, starting when the force were initially contacted by the Hospital.
The video has humanised the officers, brought home the effect the case has had on them, answered numerous questions about how the case was investigated, and it has also marked, for me, a different and refreshing approach to reaching the public directly.
Dolores Cowburn
It has humanised the officers, brought home the effect the case has had on them, answered numerous questions about how the case was investigated, and it has also marked, for me, a different and refreshing approach to reaching the public directly.
For many reasons, mainly operational, officers can’t comment on cases and have to be very careful as to what can be released, especially before, during or even after a trial. Honouring the families and the victims, while showing the respect the investigation was given by officers was really good to see. In an era where policing is being highlighted in the media, for mainly negative reasons, to see police work by dedicated officers shown in such a sensitive creative way is a really valuable tool and one I think that bears testament to the enormity of the investigation. Not an easy task in any way shape or form, whilst at the same time never forgetting the families who remain at the heart of such a harrowing case.
By Dolores Cowburn, Communications Manager, Policing and Crime, West Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.
Dolores provides communications for the Mayor of West Yorkshire and Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime for West Yorkshire around policing or community safety issues. She was previously Head of Communications for the Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire, before devolution into a Mayoral Combined Authority in 2021. Before that, she was an investigative journalist in Jersey, specialising in health and crime, news editor on the Telegraph & Argus in Bradford, and Deputy Editor of The Coventry Observer.