Nurse Lucy Letby ‘revelled in killing baby girl before sending grief-stricken parents a condolence card’
LUCY Letby “revelled” in killing a baby girl before sending the grief-stricken parents a condolence card, a court has heard.
Letby, 33, is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill 10 others on the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire.
She is accused of killing one baby, known as Baby I, on her fourth attempt on October 23, 2015.
Letby, from Hereford, then sent the child’s grief-stricken parents a condolence card.
She made “repeated and determined efforts” to kill Baby I, according to Nick Johnson KC, prosecuting.
Letby was “excited” after she allegedly killed the premature baby girl and “revelled” in the pain she inflicted on her grieving mum and dad, according to Mr Johnson.
When Baby I finally died, Letby’s behaviour was both “bizarre” and “inappropriate”, he added.
The infant’s grieving mother claimed Letby smiled as she entered the room and came “into their moment” while the parents mourned their loss.
The baby’s mum told the jury: “She was smiling and kept going on about how she’d given (Baby) I her first bath and how she’d loved it. I wished she would just stop talking.
“Eventually I think she realised and stopped. It wasn’t something we wanted to hear right now”.
Letby “revelled in what she had done and enjoyed the anguish and distress she had caused,” according to Mr Johnson.
He added: “She was excited because she had killed yet another child.
“Her voyeuristic tendencies drove her to look up her mum on the internet.
“She inflicted pain on Baby I on more than one occasion and ultimately succeeded in killing her.
“Having killed her she wrote that condolence card and took a photograph of it. It was still on her phone when it was seized by police.”
He said the nurse made up an examination of Baby I by “doctors”.
The note claimed Baby I “appeared mottled in colour” on September 30.
Mr Johnson said there was no corresponding doctor’s note for this examination of “mottling” and branded it a “complete fabrication”.
Mr Johnson turned to the second alleged attack on Child I, on October 13, 2015.
Nurse Ashleigh Hudson, Child I’s designated nurse, asked Ms Letby or the nursing shift leader to keep an eye on the infant when she needed to help a colleague with a routine procedure elsewhere.
When she returned Letby was “standing in the doorway” saying Child I was “pale” and needed attention, she claimed.
Ms Hudson said in evidence the room was dark and the baby girl could not be seen from where Ms Letby was stood.
The court heard: “The next thing she remembered was the appearance of Lucy Letby in the doorway and Lucy Letby pointing out that (Baby) I looked pale. Lucy Letby was about five or six feet from the cot at the time.
“Nurse Hudson turned the light on, pulled back the canopy and immediately realised that (Baby) I was in a very poor condition. She was hypotonic and was grasping agonal breaths – dying breaths.”
The barrister said in cross-examination Letby acknowledged her eyesight was no better than Nurse Hudson’s.
When asked how she could have seen the baby’s condition from that distance, she replied: “I had more experience, so I knew what I was looking for…”
She immediately corrected herself, replacing “for” for the word “at”.
Mr Johnson then read out the names of the other 10 babies Letby is accused of trying to murder.
In his final words to the jury, he said: “That is our case, and you’ll let us know if it’s right.”
Letby allegedly embarked on a year-long killing spree while working on the neonatal ward at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
The court heard previously she was a “constant malevolent presence” on the ward.
Letby is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill ten others between June 2015 and June 2016.
The babies “would have all gone home” if Letby had not “sabotaged them”, a judge heard at her murder trial at Manchester Crown Court.
It’s claimed some of the newborns were repeatedly targeted by the nurse – including one baby Letby is alleged to have killed after three previous failed attempts.
The nurse allegedly pumped air into the circulation of several of her victims, creating gas bubbles which then blocked their blood supply.
Consultants then grew suspicious of the “significant rise” in the number of babies dying or suffering “catastrophic” collapses at the hospital.
Letby denies all charges and the trial continues.