Why are we banned from reading the New Yorker article on Lucy Letby?

An investigation into the circumstances surrounding Letby’s conviction for murdering seven babies raises important questions about our legal process, writes Alan Rusbridger

Lucy Letby is appealing against her convictions for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others (PA)

Among the truest things Boris Johnson ever said – admittedly a niche category – was his observation on his way out of Downing Street: “The herd is powerful – and when the herd moves, it moves.”

The saying came to mind after reading an extraordinary 13,000-word article in the current New Yorker, in which one journalist, Rachel Aviv, ignored the herd.

The link to the article is here, but if you’re living in the UK that won’t help you much: the piece has been geo-blocked by the magazine’s lawyers so that it cannot be accessed in Britain. Nor, for the same legal reasons, can anyone say much about it.