Dutch nurse Lucia de Berk, who was at the centre of one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in Dutch legal history, has died at the age of 63 after a short illness.

De Berk, who always maintained her innocence, was jailed for life in 2004 and finally released in 2010 after a long campaign against her convictions.

The case against her was largely based on statistical evidence and claims that a baby had been poisoned. That supposed murder, later disputed by toxicologists, led prosecutors to state that other patients had also been killed by her.

The alleged murders and attempted murders took place at three hospitals between 1997 and 2001. They came to light after police began investigating the death of a baby girl named Amber.

De Berk’s eventual conviction was based on two deaths, including that of baby Amber, which toxicology reports said could have been caused by digoxin poisoning.

All the other patients were either very old or very sick and died as a result of ‘medically unexplained’ causes. In these cases, De Berk was on duty ‘noticeably often’ when someone died, the prosecution department had claimed.

The statistical probability of her being present at so many deaths was central to the prosecution’s case. None of the alleged victims underwent post mortem examinations.

The case bears strong similarities to that of British nurse Lucy Letby who was jailed in August 2023, after being found guilty on seven counts each of murdering and attempting to murder sick babies.

Her conviction too is largely based on statistical evidence placing her at the scene of every suspicious event but this has now been disputed by statisticians.