Lucy Letby murdered a baby when its mother went on the school run and attacked other newborns when their parents left the neonatal unit to rest, a court heard today.
Nine of the babies Lucy Letby either murdered or tried to murder suffered a critical deterioration shortly after their parents had left them on the neonatal unit where she worked, a jury was told.
The infants were named by prosecutor Nick Johnson KC as the neonatal nurse faced a fifth day of cross-examination at Manchester Crown Court.
Letby is accused of murdering seven babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital and attempting to murder a further ten.
Today Mr Johnson identified five of the alleged murder victims and four others as those whose care was ‘sabotaged’ when Letby took advantage of their parents’ departure.
In some cases the parents had left the neonatal unit to get some rest, in one instance so that a mother could collect her other children from school.
Lucy Letby, 33, who is accused of murdering premature babies, seen being cross examined in a court sketch last week
Mr Johnson was cross-examining Letby about Baby H when he referred to a WhatsApp message she had sent an off-duty nurse, telling her she was helping another colleague ‘so was at least still involved’ in H’s care.
The barrister asked: ‘Was that an opportunity to sabotage (Baby) H because you were not involved in the paperwork?’
‘No,’ said Letby.
Mr Johnson pointed out that the infant had blood in her mouth, adding: ‘It’s like (Baby) E, isn’t it? That’s what you saw with E, isn’t it?’
When the Chester University graduate said it had not been ‘an active bleed’, he put it to her that she had interfered with Baby H’s ET tube, and that was why she was desaturating on September 26, 2015.
‘No’, said Letby.
She rejected his suggestion that she was ‘bored with the children you were looking after in Nursery 2: and had ‘time on your hands’.
Mr Johnson then asked: ‘The departure of (Baby) H’s father gave you the opportunity to sabotage her, didn’t it…?’
Letby replied: ‘No’.
The barrister continued: ‘…Just as you did with B, C, E I, M, N, O and P – all cases where they deteriorated shortly after their parents left’.
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Babies C, E, I, O and P were allegedly murdered by Letby on various dates between June 2015 and June 2016. The other four are each the subject of a charge of attempted murder.
Earlier in his cross-examination Mr Johnson reminded Letby of the evidence given by Baby H’s father.
He had told the court in a written statement how on September 25th he had stayed late on the unit with his mother-in-law, ‘until about midnight’. At that time his daughter was stable in an incubator on CPAP. However, he was urgently recalled to the hospital in the early hours.
The barrister put it to Letby that shortly after the father’s departure she had interfered with Baby H’s ET tube, ‘moving it around a bit to destabilise her’. She had then altered handwritten nursing notes to give herself an alibi.
Referring to one particular note, he put it to her: ‘This is you lying in the document, isn’t it?’
Letby denies the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of ten others in the neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016
The children’s nurse replied: ‘No, it’s not lies’.
Mr Johnson persisted, telling Letby that some of the detail recorded by a registrar, Dr Alison Ventress, was not in her nursing notes. Nor was it in a note she had typed into the computerised system shortly after 04:14 hours.
‘Given that (the father) had only just left, I’m suggesting that you were falsely creating the impression that the registrar – your friend Dr Ventress – that H had been presenting with problems over the preceding hours. What do you say to that?’
Letby replied: ‘I don’t agree that it was false’.
Mr Johnson: ‘But your typed note and handwritten note don’t match up. Was it an innocent coincidence?
‘Yes’, said Letby
The barrister put it to her that the reason the baby collapsed was that she removed one of the chest drains medical staff had inserted to help her breathing.
‘That’s the reason she desaturated just after her father had left. Because you were sabotaging H that night, weren’t you?’
Letby replied: ‘No’.
Letby, 33, originally from Hereford, denies all the allegations against her.
