Everything You Need To Know About Lucy Letby, The Nurse Who Allegedly Murdered 8 Babies At The Hospital Where She Worked
Looking at photos of 31-year-old Lucy Letby, you would think she’s your average, happy young woman.
Lucy worked hard studying as a nurse and graduated with her degree in 2011 from Chester University.
After she graduated, she worked at Liverpool Women’s Hospital to get more training under her belt.
Being a nurse was a job Lucy dreamed of doing. Her colleagues said that she was a complete professional and worked hard.
She has a squeaky clean record with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and she even was their poster child for a campaign that raised nearly $3.5 million dollars for them.
Facebook; pictured above 30-year-old nurse Lucy smiles for a photo while at a sporting event with friends
Lucy said about the council in a statement, “I enjoy seeing them progress and supporting their families.”
One of Lucy’s friends said that Lucy was kind and wouldn’t even hurt a fly. She seemed like the perfect fit for working as a neonatal nurse.
And then, between June of 2015 and June of 2016, seventeen babies died at Countess of Chester Hospital.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
Facebook; Lucy is pictured above holding an infant in the hospital where she worked
Located in Chester, England, this was the very hospital Lucy was working at when the deaths occurred.
One of her neighbors told DailyMail, “I knew her when she was a little girl and she was as sweet as anything. I’ve seen her grow up and she seemed a lovely woman.”
“So this is news is deeply and utterly shocking. I can’t fathom it.”
“When you hear of these sort of things, you always get one or two people saying ‘I thought there was something fishy about them.”
“But with Lucy all you will hear is positive things.”
Facebook; in the above photo, Lucy is pictured out with her friends sipping a drink
Lucy’s friends and family say that she was very involved in charitable causes and that she was just a sweet, geeky young woman.
One friend called her just an amazing person.
Lucy was even the face of the $2.6 million dollar appeal for the hospital to build a brand new pediatric unit back in 2013.
Facebook; pictured above is Lucy’s graduation photo that her parents proudly published in a local paper to announce her graduation from nursing school
So, how does someone who seems like such a do-gooder who cares about children end up being accused of murder?
Lucy is not just facing charges for murdering just one child….she’s currently facing charges for murdering eight that were in her care and attempting to murder ten more.
Back in 2016, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health released three different reports saying that staffing in the pediatric unit of Countess of Chester Hospital was far from adequate.
Facebook; Lucy smiles big and snaps a selfie with a friend in the photo above
They couldn’t figure out why babies entrusted to the nurses and doctors there died in heartbreaking numbers from June 2015 to June 2016.
They did, however, come up with 24 different ways they recommended the hospital could improve the care of babies there.
Poor decision-making by the staff, lack of senior doctors, and the reluctance of staff to get advice from their colleagues were some of the concerns the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health cited in their reports.
Facebook; Lucy poses in the above photo in front of a piano while holding a drink in her hands
The death rate of babies at this hospital was over 10% the average expected death rate for maternity wards.
Just two babies died at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2013. In 2014, that number was three babies. In 2015, eight babies died.
Then in 2016, five babies died by June, which was only halfway through that year.
Facebook; Lucy smiles while wearing a blue sweater in the above photo, and it’s hard to imagine someone beloved by her friends, family, and coworkers was actually capable of what she allegedly did
The increase in deaths of babies in this hospital’s care forced them to stop caring for any baby younger than 32 weeks old and transferred all babies under this age out of their care.
They also had three intensive care cots that they closed because of the rapidly increasing death rate.
Premature babies were collapsing with lung and heart failure. They were proving impossible to resuscitate, which was beyond bizarre.
The babies that had died were then showing weird blotches all over their legs and arms after their deaths.
Since none of the experts could figure out what on earth was going on, police were called in to investigate the hospital in 2017, in hopes of being able to get to the bottom of everything.
Lucy did an interview with one of her local newspapers around this time, posing for a photo in her ward while she held up a little baby outfit. She later proudly posted the photo on her social media.
She told the paper in her interview, “I qualified as a Children’s Nurse from The University of Chester in 2011 and have been working on the unit since graduating.”
Facebook; pictured above is a closeup photo of Lucy enjoying a night out with her friends
“I also worked on the unit as a student nurse during my three years of training. My role involves caring for a wide range of babies requiring various levels of support.”
“Some are here for a few days, others for many months and I enjoy seeing them progress and supporting their families.”
“I am currently undergoing extra training in order to develop and enhance my knowledge and skills within the Intensive Care area and have recently completed a placement at Liverpool Women’s Hospital.”
Facebook; Lucy smiles while out on the town with her friends for the night
“I hope the new unit will provide a greater degree of privacy and space,” she added about the brand new neonatal unit that was opening.
This was the unit that cost over $2 million dollars that she had been the face for.
It’s absolutely unclear how police were able to pinpoint Lucy as a suspect in the deaths, but shortly before she was arrested, the hospital placed her on suspension.
Facebook; Lucy smiles and poses alongside a Christmas tree in the festive photo pictured above
The hospital then brought her off suspension and moved her into an administrative-type position where she wasn’t interacting with patients.
There are still so many unanswered questions, but Lucy was first arrested in 2018 (yes, the first time…she was recently arrested again).
This means it took police a year into their investigation to say they suspected Lucy of being involved.
Detective Inspector Paul Hughes, who led the investigation, said the following in a statement.
Facebook; Lucy laughs and poses in front of a car in the photo above
“We recognize that this investigation has a huge impact on all of the families, staff, and patients at the hospital, as well as members of the public,” he said.
“Parents of all the babies are continuing to be kept fully updated and are being supported throughout the process by specially trained officers.”
Facebook; pictured above Lucy makes a crazy face for the camera
“This is an extremely difficult time for all the families and it is important to remember that, at the heart of this, there are a number of bereaved families seeking answers as to what happened to their children.”
Sources say that Lucy went on vacation with her parents and that the infants that were coming up sick significantly went down while she was away, which is how police originally suspected her.
On Facebook, Lucy belonged to 14 different groups dedicated to helping sick children.
Facebook; Lucy makes a silly face alongside friends in the photo above
When Lucy was first arrested, police searched the entire home that she purchased for a little over $200,000. They even dug up her gardens trying to find any sign of infant remains.
So far, no infant remains have been discovered in Lucy’s home or on her property.
Police then interrogated Lucy for two whole days. They suspected Lucy murdered eight babies and attempted to murder six more that she had cared for.
She was later released on bail in July of 2018, but then she was arrested for a second time…
Facebook; Lucy laughs in the backseat of a car in the photo above
Lucy was arrested again for a second time in June of 2019, nearly a year after she was released on bail.
At that time, police explained they thought she had potentially murdered more babies, and then she was released again.
Then, she was arrested for the third time in November of 2020, and here’s what the police said at the time.
Facebook; Lucy is pictured above on a pole
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Hughes from the Cheshire Police said in a press release, “Today (Tuesday 10 November), as part of our ongoing enquiries, the healthcare professional has been re-arrested on suspicion of murder in relation to the deaths of 8 babies and the attempted murder of 9 babies.”
“The woman is currently in custody helping officers with their enquiries.”
They had enough evidence to arrest her again, although they are not sharing exactly what they have that points to Lucy.
Facebook; Lucy is pictured above drinking out of a pitcher in a restaurant
On November 111th, 2020, the Cheshire Police released another statement saying that Lucy was being charged officially.
“The Crown Prosecution Service has authorized Cheshire Police to charge a healthcare professional with murder in connection with an ongoing investigation into a number of baby deaths at the Countess of Chester Hospital,” the statement reads.
“Lucy Letby, of Arran Avenue, Hereford, is facing 8 charges of murder and 10 charges of attempted murder. The charges relate to the period of June 2015 to June 2016.”
Facebook; Lucy is pictured above enjoying a night out and showing off her goofier side
“The 30-year-old was re-arrested on Tuesday 10 November and has since subsequently been charged.”
“She has been held in custody and is due to appear at Warrington Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 12 November.”
On October 4th, 2021, Lucy appeared in court over video where she pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of 10 babies, and she also pleaded not guilty to the murder of 8 babies.
On October 10th, 2022, Lucy’s trial started, and you can read all about it on the next page.
In photos, the smiley thirty-two-year-old Lucy Letby might look like a run-of-the-mill, happy-go-lucky young nurse.
She studied at Chester University in the UK and graduated with her nursing degree in 2011. Then, Lucy went on to work at Liverpool Women’s Hospital and was even the face of a Nursing and Midwifery Council campaign– which raised nearly $3.5 million dollars.
But, between June 2015 and 2016, seventeen babies mysteriously died at Countess of Chester Hospital– where Lucy was employed at the time. And after an investigation was launched into the infants’ deaths in 2017, all eyes turned to Lucy.
The young nurse was then arrested three separate times before she was formally charged and remanded in custody in 2020.
Lucy is believed to have gone on a year-long killing spree while working in the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal care unit. And now, as of Monday, October 10, the young nurse’s trial has finally begun at Manchester Crown Court.
Lucy is facing murder charges for two girls and five boys. She also allegedly attempted to murder an additional five girls and five boys– all within that one-year period.
For privacy purposes, all of the children will be referred to as letters A through Q throughout the trial.
A Play-By-Play Of Trial Day One
Lucy’s parents, John and Susan Letby, arrived at Manchester Crown Court at about 5:30 a.m. this morning. And just a few minutes later, a prison van transporting Lucy also arrived.
Lucy donned a dark blue suit and black blouse while being arraigned on twenty-two charges; meanwhile, loved ones of Lucy’s alleged victims sat in the public gallery.
The nurse pled not guilty to each charge against her. Then, a jury was selected and sworn in– consisting of eight women and four men– before the trial kicked off.
Nick Johnson KC opened for the prosecution and began by describing Countess of Chester hospital as a care facility much like the thousands of others throughout the UK.
“But, unlike many other hospitals in the UK and unlike many other neonatal units in the UK, within the neonatal unit in the Countess of Chester, a poisoner was at work,” Johnson said.
The prosecutor then acknowledged the skyrocketing infant mortality rate at Countess of Chester during Lucy’s time at the hospital– a rate fraught with cases of unexpected and unexplainable death.
“Babies who had not been unstable at all suddenly severely deteriorated. Sometimes, babies who had been sick and then on the mend deteriorated for no apparent reason,” Johnson noted.
“The consultants found the inexplicable collapses and deaths did have one common denominator. The presence of one neonatal unit nurse. That nurse was Lucy Letby.”
Following Johnson’s chilling opening, the jury learned more about Lucy’s alleged crimes. Most of the incidents happened during the night shift when guardians and parents were less likely to be present at the hospital.
And Lucy’s time spent on the night shift corresponded with the rise in deaths; meanwhile, when Lucy was moved to the day shift, there was a rise then, too.
Additionally, the prosecution shockingly revealed that Lucy allegedly poisoned two infants– known as Child F and Child L– with insulin.
Apparently, both of the children– who were boys– experienced blood sugar levels that “inexplicably dropped to dangerous levels.” Thankfully, though, they did survive after other staff members in the neonatal unit intervened.
And at first, the drop in blood sugar was attributed to natural causes– because, according to Johnson, the idea that a hospital staff member would intentionally harm a child never came to mind.
“Nobody would think in the neonatal unit of a hospital someone was trying to kill babies,” Johnson explained.
Then, the prosecution detailed how Child E and Child M were harmed– followed by the death of Child E after air was fatally injected into their bloodstream.
The term “harmed” varied from child to child. For some, that meant injected with air; for others, injection with insulin. However, Johnson believes that the different means all point back to Lucy.
“The constant presence when they were fatally attacked, or collapsed, was Lucy Letby,” he noted.
It also came to light that Lucy allegedly made as many as three attempts before killing some of the children and then searched for the victims’ families on Facebook afterward.
“We suggest it is an unusual interest, and we will see that on occasions, she searched in quick succession for several of the families of children’s names who appear on this indictment,” Johnson said.
The prosecution also described in-depth the circumstances surrounding Child A’s death and Child B’s incidence of harm.
Child A reportedly “most likely” died after being injected with air via an umbilical venous catheter or a long line. Then, Child B experienced rapidly falling oxygen levels just twenty-eight hours after Child A died.
Lucy was not Child B’s designated nurse. However, Lucy still took the child’s blood gases. Then, about thirty minutes later, Child B was no longer breathing. Their oxygen saturation level had fallen to fifty percent, and the child was turning blue.
Thankfully, Child B was resuscitated and able to “recover quickly.” However, a doctor concluded that the child had been “subjected to some form of sabotage before or after midnight on the night of June 9-10, 2015.”
Finally, the court was adjourned for the day at 11:00 a.m. this morning following Johnson’s claim that Lucy’s involvement is the “obvious conclusion.”
“You might be tempted to draw what we suggest is the obvious conclusion. Taking a step back, it is easy to get sucked in by the detail in this case but important always to keep a sense of perspective,” Johnson finished.
A Play-By-Play Of Trial Day Two – October 11, 2022
This morning, Lucy arrived at Manchester Crown Court wearing a blue t-shirt and black jacket at about 5:30 a.m. EST. Then, the prosecution– led by Nick Johnson KC– resumed its opening.
On day one, Johnson detailed the circumstances surrounding Child A’s death and Child B’s incidence of harm. Today, he began by describing Child C– who the prosecution claim was murdered by Lucy on June 14, 2015.
Like many other children involved in the case, Child C was born prematurely. The baby boy was born weighing less than two pounds, although he was expected to thrive and was deemed “in good condition” by his medical team.
Then, on the evening of June 13, Child C was assigned to a different nurse at Countess of Chester Hospital. At the same time, Lucy was assigned to care for another child– who is not included in the indictment and is known only by the initials JE.
According to Johnson, the nurses’ shift leader told Lucy that she needed to watch JE closely since the child was considered to be in a deteriorating condition.
“This was a message that [the shift leader] had to reinforce later in the shift when it became clear that Letby was ignoring her,” Johnson added.
Then, when Child C’s designated nurse left to visit the nursing station, the baby boy’s alarm began to sound. And when Child C’s nurse returned to the room, she found Lucy standing next to the baby boy’s cot.
By that point, Child C was experiencing rapidly dropping oxygen levels and heart rate. And Johnson claims that Lucy had “no business” for being in the boy’s room.
“There again at the bedside, or the incubator side, was Lucy Letby,” Johnson said.
Other staff members were able to assist Child C using a device to help him breathe, known as a “neopuff.” However, after Child C recovered shortly afterward, the boy still suffered a prolonged period of low oxygen saturation and heart rate.
During this damage control period, the shift leader assigned Lucy to another child’s room. And according to Johnson, texts sent by Lucy that day revealed her discontent with the reassignment.
“She texted an off-duty colleague saying that she, Lucy Letby, wanted to be in room one. She said it would be cathartic for her; it would help her wellbeing to see a living baby in the space previously occupied by a dead baby– Child A– a baby who had died a few days earlier,” Johnson told the court.
“But the shift leader had put her in room three. So she did not like it.”
And sadly, Child C did not make it. Instead, the baby boy was pronounced dead at about 6:00 a.m. the following morning on June 14.
The hospital’s consultant pathologist had declared Child C’s cause of death to be “widespread hypoxic/ischaemic damage to the heart/myocardium due to lung disease” at the time.
However, Johnson detailed how Child C’s vocal cords were “swollen” and how the independent medical experts who reviewed Child C’s case found that infection did not “adequately explain” the boy’s collapse.
Rather, one doctor stated that the “only feasible mechanism” for the amount of excess air in the gut of Child C was the intentional injection of air through the nasal gastric tube.
“This was a variation– or refinement– of a theme Lucy Letby had started with Children A and B,” Johnson said.
The jury was then shown a diagram that explained how inflating an infant’s stomach with excess milk or air could cause them to stop breathing.
“If you are trying to murder a child in a neonatal unit, it’s a fairly effective way of doing it since it does not really leave much of a trace,” Johnson noted.
However, when Lucy was interviewed in 2018 regarding Child C’s death, she claimed she had nothing to do with any of Child C’s care aside from his resuscitation. Lucy also denied ever being the staff member who discovered Child C’s deteriorating condition– even though her texts placed her by Child C’s bedside.
Then, one year later, Lucy went back on her previous statement and agreed that she had, in fact, been the nurse in the room when Child C collapsed.
Moreover, less than twenty-four hours after the baby boy died, Lucy searched on Facebook for the child’s parents’ names at 3:52 p.m. And since she had only ended her shift at 8:00 a.m. that morning, Johnson suggested that Lucy’s Facebook search may have been “one of the first things she did having woken up.”
The court also learned about Child D– a baby who was allegedly murdered just eight days after Child C on June 22.
“The prosecution says that this was another case of injecting a child with air into the bloodstream. Three children had died, and one had had a life-threatening episode in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in a two-week period. Lucy Letby was the only constant presence,” Johnson stated.
And finally, the prosecution addressed Child E– Lucy’s alleged fourth murder victim who was a twin baby boy– who was found bleeding from his mouth on August 3, 2015.
That evening, at about 9:00 p.m., Child E was feeding well, and his mother decided to visit him in the neonatal unit. There, Child E was in the care of Lucy, along with his twin brother, Child F.
According to Johnson, the boy’s mother “interrupted Lucy Letby, who was in the process of attacking Child E.”
However, the mother did not realize it at the time. All she found was her son acutely distressed and bleeding from his mouth.
The baby’s mother was understandably jolted and claimed that Lucy tried to reassure her. Lucy allegedly stated that the blood was the result of a feeding tube-irritated throat.
Johnson also claimed that Lucy told Child E’s mother to return to the postnatal ward and stated, “Trust me, I’m a nurse.”
“We suggest she [Child E’s mother] was fobbed off by Lucy Letby. However, the mother was so concerned by what she had seen that she telephoned her husband when she got back to the labor ward,” Johnson said.
Sadly, Child E ultimately died early the following morning of August 4. And according to the prosecution, Lucy had made “fraudulent” nursing notes– calling them “false, misleading and designed to cover her tracks.”
Child E was also found left with a “striking” purple and white rash on his abdomen– a characteristic present on Lucy’s other alleged victims that medical professionals claimed was consistent with air injection.
A Play-By-Play Of Trial Day Three – October 12, 2022
Today, the murder trial of Lucy Letby began at about 5:30 a.m. EST. The prosecution, led by Nick Johnson KC, resumed its opening statement with a detailed account of two instances involving Child H.
The first incident allegedly occurred during the night shift of September 25 into September 26, 2015. That evening, Lucy was Child H’s designated nurse.
And at one point during Lucy’s shift, the baby needed a blood transfusion as well as constant monitoring following a deterioration period a few days prior. This earlier deterioration was not tied to Lucy.
However, the ICU chart revealed that Lucy administered a dose of morphine at 1:25 a.m., as well as a saline drip at 2:50 a.m. Then, at 3:22 a.m., Child H– a baby girl– suffered a severe collapse and required complete resuscitation.
“Lucy Letby would have had the cover of legitimate treatment of accessing the intravenous lines for Child H just before she collapsed,” Johnson said.
And to corroborate this suspicion, the hospital’s attending consultant concluded that the cause of Child H’s collapse was unclear– unlike Child H’s previous incidences of collapse.
Nonetheless, Child H did show stable improvement after being treated by hospital staff. And the following evening, Lucy Letby was not the nurse assigned to care for the baby girl.
But, at about 3:30 a.m., Child H’s oxygen levels began to rapidly fall out of nowhere. The hospital’s registrar claimed they responded to the emergency alarm call and found Lucy administering a neopuff device to help Child H’s breathing.
Apparently, the registrar had thought that Lucy was the baby girl’s designated nurse at the time. However, when Child H’s actual nurse returned, she noted “pink-tinged secretions” around the baby’s mouth.
“There was no reason for what was going on,” Johnson said to the court.
Following that second incident, Child H was transferred to another hospital– Arrowe Park– and reportedly showed “dramatic improvement” immediately after arriving there.
Child H was concluded to have suffered no permanent consequences of the alleged attack. Still, Johnson used Child H’s case to further support a developing pattern.
“As soon as children were removed from the Countess of Chester Hospital and the sphere of Lucy Letby, they often suddenly and remarkably recovered,” Johnson stated.
However, the prosecution did reveal that Lucy’s interest in Child H allegedly did not stop after the baby was transferred out of her hospital’s care. Instead, records showed that one week after Child H’s collapse, Lucy searched for the baby’s mother on Facebook.
That same day– a day she was not scheduled to work– she also searched for the father of twin babies E and F, as well as the mother of Child I.
Following the detailed account of Child H, the prosecution then moved on to the case of Child I. And Johnson prefaced this by calling Child I’s case “an extreme example even by the standards of this overall case.”
The prosecution alleges that Lucy attempted to kill Child I four separate times and succeeded on the fourth and final attempt.
Child I had been born prematurely– weighing two pounds and two ounces– although medical staff had declared the baby girl to be in good condition.
Then, four inexplicable incidents occurred one after another– beginning on September 30, 2015.
That evening, Lucy was Child I’s designated nurse, and according to the baby girl’s mother, Lucy expressed concern about her daughter’s “distended stomach.”
However, according to Child I’s medical notes, Lucy claimed that the baby’s mother had brought this issue to her attention.
The baby girl was then reviewed, and medical staff said she “appeared mottled in color with a distended abdomen and prominent veins.”
Lucy then fed Child I milk at 4:00 p.m. that afternoon before an emergency crash call was issued just thirty minutes later. Within that short period, the baby girl had suffered desaturation, a plummeting heart rate, had been vomiting and struggling to breathe.
Later, an x-ray revealed that Child I had “a massive amount of gas in her stomach and in her bowl, and her lungs appeared squashed.” But, as soon as Child I had the air removed, her condition improved.
Still, just half an hour before Lucy’s shift ended later that night– at about 7:30 p.m.– the nurse gave Child I another saline injection and adjusted the baby girl’s glucose infusion.
“Within moments, you know what happens, don’t you, Child I deteriorated again,” Johnson said to the court.
“But, as I have already said, Child I was resilient, and overnight, once removed from the orbit of Lucy Letby, Child I’s condition improved.”
Then, about two weeks later, during the night shift of October 12, 2015, Child I’s second incident occurred. Again, Lucy was not the baby girl’s designated nurse, and Child I had been doing well.
However, at 3:00 a.m., Child I’s designated nurse had to “temporarily” leave the nursery. And when that nurse returned about twenty minutes later, she found Lucy standing in the doorway of Child I’s room.
“The room was darkened because it was night, and as soon as she appeared, Lucy Letby said to her [the nurse] that Child I looked pale,” Johnson recalled.
“Then, she turned the light on, and Child I appeared to be at the point of death and was not breathing.”
At this point, the prosecution asked the jury to consider how Lucy could have possibly seen that Child I was pale if she had only been standing in the doorway with “minimal lighting.”
Johnson also implored the jurors to consider that Lucy could have potentially shut off the emergency crash call alarm that should have gone off after Child I suffered slowed breathing.
Child I was again found to have “gross gas swelling throughout her bowel and signs of something called chronic lung disease of prematurity.” The baby girl was given CPR and adrenaline, and she was intubated and ventilated.
But then, following this second incident, Lucy was made Child I’s designated nurse since she had special training. This was a precursor to incidents three and four.
The next night, Lucy took responsibility for Child I’s care– her only duty that evening. And again, Child I suffered from increasing abdominal swelling and discoloration.
Another x-ray revealed severe gaseous distention that was enough to split Child I’s diaphragm and stop the baby girl from breathing. She again required CPR.
“Child I was brought back from the brink of death right at the end of the shift, at 7:48 a.m.,” Johnson told the court.
And after the third incident, the baby girl was removed from Countess of Chester Hospital. At that time, she reportedly made a “speedy recovery” before returning to Chester on October 17, 2015. Back again, Child I allegedly thrived for five days.
“A period that coincided with the absence of work from Lucy Letby,” Johnson noted.
But, during the evening shift of October 22, Child I would eventually die.
That night, Lucy was not the baby girl’s designated nurse. In fact, according to Lucy’s notes, she actually had a relatively slow night of patient care.
Then, just before midnight, Child I collapsed a fourth time. Another x-ray revealed a “large stomach bubble” had been present in her bowel.
So, the medical staff resuscitated Child I and brought her back to a stable condition. Afterward, the baby girl reportedly showed signs of wanting to be fed– at which point Child I’s designated nurse took the baby girl off the ventilator and left the room.
“You know what I am going to say next, don’t you?” Johnson rhetorically asked the jury.
Child I’s emergency crash alarm went off, and the baby girl’s designated nurse sped to the room and found Lucy standing next to the baby’s incubator.
Apparently, Child I was severely distressed, and the baby girl’s designated nurse tried to intervene. But, the nurse alleges that Lucy stopped her and said they “would sort it out.”
Tragically, though, Child I was never led to recovery. Instead, the baby girl was pronounced dead at 2:30 a.m.
Afterward, Child I’s parents were guided to a private room and asked if they wanted to bathe their late daughter.
Then, according to Johnson, the baby girl’s mother “bathed her recently departed child, and Lucy Letby came into the room.”
“And in the words of the mother, [Lucy] was ‘smiling and kept going on about how she was present at Child I’s first bath and how much Child I had loved it.”
Following the baby girl’s death, her case was referred to the coroner– who concluded that “earlier attempts to kill Child I had caused brain damage.”
The prosecution also revealed that Lucy had been questioned by police regarding a sympathy card she had sent to the parents of Child I. Johnson called this act “not normal.”
However, Lucy claimed that was the only time she had sent a card to a family and claimed: “it is not often the nurses got to know a family as well as they had known Child I’s.”
Lucy also admitted to investigators that she had kept a photo of the card on her smartphone.
“What happened to Child I followed the pattern of what happened to the others before. It was persistent, it was calculated, and it was cold-blooded,” Johnson told the court.
The court then took a break for fifteen minutes before resuming with the case of Child J. Child J, another baby girl, was born prematurely, and about five weeks after Child I’s death, the baby girl suffered an inexplicable collapse on November 26, 2015.
Child J then collapsed two more times that evening– both of which Lucy responded to. The first time, though, another doctor on call took over.
“He [the doctor] described Child J’s oxygen levels as dropping to unrecordable levels and her circulation as poor,” Johnson said.
“He also noticed symptoms of a seizure in that Child J’s arms were stiff, her fists were clenched, and her eyes were deviating to the left.”
And at about 7:20 a.m., after Lucy started a glucose infusion on Child J, the baby girl collapsed again.
It was at that point that Lucy finished her night shift, and Child J recovered smoothly. Still, the other responding doctor deemed Child J’s collapses as “incidents unexplained.”
“We suggest that it is highly significant that children within the orbit of Lucy Letby persistently and consistently suffered unexplained collapses,” Johnson told the court.
“Sometimes the evidence of her hand at work is more obvious than others, and it is remarkable that on many occasions when children who had suffered unexpected spectacular and life-threatening collapses were removed from her orbit, they had exceptional recoveries.”
Today, the jury also learned about Child K– with whom Lucy is accused of killing by means of dislodging a breathing tube– and Child L– with whom Lucy is accused of killing after increasing a dose of intravenous insulin after “failing to kill Child F.”
“She had failed to kill Child F, and so she increased the dose. She saw the opportunity to complete what she had attempted with Child F,” Johnson claimed.
And the prosecution revealed this afternoon that after Child L was allegedly attacked in April of 2016, hospital staff at Chester had grown suspicious of Lucy.
“By this time, Letby was supposed to only be working day shifts because the consultants were concerned about the correlation between her presence and unexpected deaths/life-threatening episodes on night shifts,” Johnson told the court.
Finally, the prosecution wrapped up today’s portion of the opening statement with the accounts of Child M, Child N, and twin children O and P.
Child M, a baby boy, was left with brain damage that was “likely caused by cardio-respiratory collapse” on April 9, 2016, according to a neurologist– another case of rapid deterioration that Johnson alleges Lucy played a role in.
And Lucy was accused of trying to kill Child N on three separate occasions. The baby boy, who was born prematurely, had hemophilia– a disease that can cause bleeding for little to no reason and that the prosecution claims provided Lucy cover with which to attack Child N.
Johnson also alleged that Lucy murdered two of three triplets– Child O and Child P. Child O died of liver trauma just eight days after Lucy allegedly attacked Child N. Child P’s case has not been described by the prosecution yet.
But, Johnson did reveal that again, Lucy searched for another one of her alleged victim’s families on Facebook on the anniversary of Child O’s death.
A Play-By-Play Of Trial Day Four – October 13, 2022
That morning, day four of Lucy Letby’s murder trial began at Manchester Crown Court at about 5:30 a.m. EST. Lucy wore a black suit as her parents, John and Susan, and the family members of her alleged victims sat in the gallery.
The prosecution, led by Nick Johnson KC, concluded its opening statement today by detailing the cases of Children P and Q.
Johnson claimed that after Lucy allegedly murdered Child O, she then shifted her focus to Child P and killed the baby boy just one day later, on June 23, 2016. Both of the children were related and two of three triplets.
Child P died via “somebody injecting him with air,” according to independent medical experts– the same cause of death present in the majority of the other children’s cases.
Additionally, it was revealed that Lucy apparently spent time with Children O and P’s parents after Child P died. Then, she took a photo of both children lying together in a cot.
Next, the prosecution moved on to Child Q– a baby boy who was assigned to Lucy the day after Child P’s death. Child Q is also the final infant included in the indictment.
According to the prosecution, Lucy “sabotaged” the baby boy– because after Child Q’s feeding time at 9:00 a.m., the baby boy began to deteriorate.
Johnson claims that Lucy tried to create an alibi by making notes in the charts of other babies and making it appear as though she was not involved in Child Q’s declining health state.
And after Child Q deteriorated, he did make a reasonable recovery.
“When she went home that night, Lucy Letby was worried. She must have gotten the impression that people had become suspicious of what she was doing,” Johnson told the court.
Then, once Child Q was transferred to the Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool, he “quickly stabilized.” At the same time, Lucy allegedly texted another doctor in her ward and asked if she needed to be worried.
Lucy only worked at Countess of Chester Hospital for three more days the following week until she was removed from the neonatal unit.
Although, the most significant piece of evidence the prosecution revealed today was a handwritten confession allegedly penned by Lucy herself.
The court was told that police had recovered numerous handwritten documents from Lucy’s home after arresting her back in July 2018.
One of the notes, which was headlined “Not good enough,” was shown to the jury today and included various damning statements.
“I will never have children or marry. I will never know what it’s like to have a family. I can’t breathe,” the note reads.
“I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them,” the note continued.
Lucy also allegedly wrote: “I am a horrible evil person” and “I AM EVIL I DID THIS.”
The prosecution used this note, along with others, to conclude its opening statement.
Then, after the court adjourned for thirty minutes at 6:40 a.m. EST, the defense– led by Ben Meyers KC– began its opening argument.
Meyers began by claiming the prosecution’s evidence was just a theory.
“There is a real danger that people will simply accept the prosecution theory of guilt. And that is all that we have so far. A theory of guilt, based firmly on coincidence,” Meyers told the court.
Then, the defense declined to address the specific details of Children A through Q’s cases first. Instead, Meyers went on to cite the various “failings at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit that have nothing to do with Lucy Letby.”
He primarily blamed “inadequate” care standards at the hospital and claimed that at least one of the children’s death was an “inevitable” outcome due to being prematurely born.
“There is a question of whether this hospital should have been looking after all these children and whether it did so to the required standard,” Meyers said.
“For a nurse in the neonatal care unit, standing there when a child is unwell is unremarkable. Her presence alone is now treated as sinister.”
The defense then asked the jury to consider five key points. First, the children’s birth conditions. Second, whether there were health or care issues leading up to each child’s alleged harm or death.
Next, whether or not the prosecution explicitly proves that deliberate harm was caused and if Lucy was evidently present at the time. And finally, if there were failings in the care of the children and/or the neonatal care unit as a whole.
Meyers also addressed the handwritten confession note written by Lucy and claimed that it represented “an anguished woman in despair.”
Then, the defense alleged that the note did not “accurately reflect” what happened. Instead, Meyers claims that Lucy wrote the note while upset and “poured her feelings onto paper as a way of coping.”
And finally, the defense concluded its opening argument by calling Lucy a “target of blame.”
“[Lucy] became a target of blame and wrongly so,” Meyers said.
“If others have failed to provide appropriate care or the unit is too busy or not appropriately staffed, you may agree that creates a situation in which things can go wrong… mistakes made, records not kept.”
And Meyers told the court that a “pressure to find an explanation” regarding the spiking infant mortality rates pushed investigators to blame Lucy.
“This whole case is a complex case; it is not straightforward. And in that dock is a young woman who says this is not her fault,” the defense finished.
More About:True Crime
Read This Next
