A former government minister has called on the Lord Chancellor to lift a court order blocking the availability to UK readers of an article raising ‘enormous concerns’ about the safety of the conviction of Lucy Letby on the grounds that the ban offended ‘open justice’. Yesterday the New Yorker magazine published a 13,000 word investigation by staff writer Rachel Aviv into last year’s trial in which the former neonatal nurse was convicted of the murder of seven infants and attempted murder of six others.

Relying on parliamentary privilege, the Conservative MP David Davis this afternoon raised the issue. ‘Yesterday the New Yorker magazine published a 13,000-word inquiry into the Lucy Letby trial, which raised enormous concerns about both the logic and competence of the statistical evidence that was a central part of that trial,’ David told MPs. ‘That article was blocked from publication on the UK internet, I understand because of a court order. Now, I’m sure that court order was well intended but it seems to me in defiance of open justice. Will the Lord Chancellor look into this matter and report back to the House?’

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk replied that court orders ‘must be obeyed and court orders can be displaced by someone applying to court for them to be removed’. ‘I will just simply make a point on the Lucy Letby case – that jury’s verdict must be respected.’

Letby is attempting to appeal her convictions at the Court of Appeal. She also faces a retrial next month on a single count that she attempted to murder a baby girl known as Child K.

A New Yorker. spokesman yesterday explained to the Press Gazette: ‘To comply with a court order restricting press coverage of Lucy Letby’s ongoing trial, The New Yorker has limited access to Rachel Aviv’s article for readers in the United Kingdom.’ UK readers trying to access the article are met with a message: ‘Oops. Our apologies. This is, almost certainly, not the page you were looking for.’