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Lucy Letby told police she could not recall details of a baby’s fatal collapse, even though she had messaged a colleague at the time about the baby’s father ‘screaming’ in distress, a jury heard today .
The 33-year-old nurse is charged with murdering five boys and two girls and trying to kill 10 others at Countess of Chester Hospital from June 2015 to June 2016.
Prosecutors say she injected the babies with air, poisoned them with insulin, overfed them and physically abused them. She denies murder.
Manchester Crown Court heard today how the alleged killer broke the news of Baby D’s death in a WhatsApp to a friend who was off duty in the neonatal ward at Countess of Chester Hospital, telling her: ‘We’ve lost D’.
The friend felt sorry for her and said, “I can’t believe you joined again. You’re having such a hard time.’
Court sketch of Nicholas Johnson KC cross-examination nurse Lucy Letby, as she appears in the dock at Manchester Crown Court, charged with the murder of seven infants and the attempted murder of 10 others
Alleged killer Lucy Letby broke the news of Baby D’s death in a WhatsApp to an off-duty friend in the neonatal ward at Countess of Chester Hospital, telling her: ‘We’ve lost D,’ the court heard on Friday
Letby responded with a term that nurses on the ward used to describe a baby’s collapse. “Spoiled a few times,” she wrote. “She came out with this weird rash… she looked like overwhelming sepsis.”
She went on to explain that doctors and nurses trying to save Baby D’s life on June 22, 2015 had gone into a state of full CPR, adding, “So upsetting for everyone. Parents completely distraught, father screaming’.
Nick Johnson KC, prosecutor at the Manchester Crown Court, reminded Letby that at a police questioning three years later she told detectives that she could not remember much about Baby D or the circumstances of her collapse.
He put it to her: “This was a dramatic and shocking incident, wasn’t it? In fact, you remembered it very well when you spoke to the police, didn’t you?’
“No,” Letby replied, as her parents, John and Susan, watched Letby from the public gallery.
The lawyer then asked, “You enjoyed all this, didn’t you, Lucy Letby?”
‘No,’ the defendant insisted again.
Letby disputed that she was the nurse who called a consultant on duty and then held the phone to a doctor’s ear as he made desperate attempts to resuscitate Baby D.
“I agree it happened, but I can’t say it was me who called.”
Later, the 33-year-old defendant told jurors that errors by hospital colleagues led to the death of one of her alleged victims.
She urged a delay in administering antibiotics to the newborn girl’s mother after her waters broke early.
John and Susan Letby, the defendant’s parents, arrive at Manchester Crown Court on Friday morning to watch their daughter testify
Letby told jurors that errors by hospital colleagues led to the death of one of her alleged victims
The former nurse allegedly administered air to the child through an intravenous line while she worked a night shift in the neonatal ward.
Child D, a full-term baby, died in the early hours of June 22, 2015, two days after her birth.
The prosecution says she was stable and making good progress when Letby was on duty to care for two other babies in the same nursery.
Giving her seventh day of evidence on Friday, Letby told the court it was not her case that the workforce contributed to Child D’s death.
Mr. Johnson said, “Is it your case that medical competence contributed?”
Letby said, “Yes. I believe she did not receive appropriate treatment at the beginning of her life.’
Insistently, the prosecutor asked, “The delay with antibiotics?”
Letby said, “Yes. It may have had an impact.’
The jury of eight women and four men previously learned from Child D’s designated nurse that she was on break when the child first collapsed in the nursery.
Mr. Johnson said, “Did you take the opportunity because she was absent to sabotage (child D)?”
The 33-year-old previously claimed advisers to the Countess of Chester had tried to blame her for a number of alleged baby deaths
“No,” Letby said.
Two further deteriorations followed when medics were unable to resuscitate Child D. Mr. Johnson continued, “(Child D) died because you injected her with air?”
“No, I didn’t,” the defendant stated.
The lawyer asked, “They (antibiotics) don’t protect against air embolism, do they?” She agreed that they didn’t.
Letby said she “didn’t know” if she had been standing over Baby D’s bed when the alarm went off.
Mr. Johnson then suggested to her that Baby D had died at a time when she was “babysitting” her “because you injected her with air… just like Baby A and Baby C.”
Letby replied, “I didn’t give her air.”
She denied having decided to “just say ‘I don’t remember’” during her first police interrogation.
“No,” she said to Mr. Johnson. “I tried to be as cooperative as possible.”
As the lawyer prepared to question her about Baby E, Letby asked, “Can I have a break, please?”
The trial judge, Mr Justice Goss, agreed and said he would adjourn the case for an early lunch.
On Thursday, Letby told the court that a “gang of four” advisers to the Countess of Chester blamed her for a number of baby deaths to cover up hospital errors.
A court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Lucy Letby looking upset when Nicholas Johnson KC (right) questioned her on Thursday
She said the workforce “partially” contributed to the death of her first alleged victim, Child A, on June 8, 2015.
Letby claimed the boy had been without fluids for some time and there was a problem inserting his intravenous line. She denied injecting him with air.
Letby is accused of similarly murdering the boy’s twin sister, Child B, on the following night shift.
She told the court that she did not know why child B had collapsed.
Letby said she also couldn’t explain the collapses of Child C, a baby boy, who died in the early hours of June 14.
She again denied taking the opportunity to sabotage Child C when his designated nurse left the room.
Letby said her colleague was “insufficiently qualified” to care for the child.
The defendant, from Hereford, denies killing seven babies and trying to kill ten others between June 2015 and June 2016.
The process continues.
Lucy Letby’s friend told alleged baby killer she was having such a tough time’ after infant death