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Lucy Letby ‘hovering around’ before Child D’s death, court hears

Giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court, Child D’s mother describes seeing accused nurse in the neonatal unit the evening before her daughter’s death

Giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court, Child D’s mother describes seeing accused nurse in the neonatal unit the evening before her daughter’s death

Lucy Letby
Lucy Letby. Picture: Shuttlestock

The mother of a baby allegedly murdered by Lucy Letby has described the nurse ‘hovering around’ them the evening before her death.

The baby, referred to as Child D, died on 22 June 2015 at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit.

Child D was the third child murdered by accused nurse, prosecution alleges

The prosecution in the trial of Ms Letby allege Child D was the third child murdered by the nurse in a two-week period. Another baby suffered a life-threatening collapse during that time.

Giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court on 3 November, Child D’s mother described seeing Ms Letby in the neonatal unit the evening before her daughter’s death.

She told the court: ‘As we got in the room she was sort of hovering around [Child D] but not doing much.

‘I asked if everything was OK and she said: “Yes, she’s fine”. That was the first time in 24 hours I could see (Child D).’

Lucy Letby ‘stuck around’ while mother of Child D visited her baby, court hears

The mother told the court that Ms Letby ‘stuck around’ while she visited with her baby.

‘She was just watching, looking over us. I asked my husband: “Can you tell her to go away and just give us some privacy?”’

Ben Myers KC, defending, asked if it was possible the nurse she had seen was someone other than Ms Letby. The mother replied: ‘I don’t think so.’

The court heard in the early hours of the following morning, the parents – staying in another part of the hospital – were woken by a nurse who was ‘in a panic’ and told them their baby was unwell.

The mother said she and her husband rushed down to the unit and saw a doctor resuscitating Child D, with Ms Letby holding a phone to his ear.

The doctor was then told to stop resuscitation and ‘let her go’ by a colleague, she said.

Child D looked ‘lifeless’ when she was delivered by Caesarean section, jurors told

Jurors heard that the mother’s waters had broken on 18 June 2015, but she was not given a Caesarean section until two days later after attempts to induce labour.

When Child D was delivered she looked ‘lifeless’. The mother told the court that medical staff initially told her not to worry, but when she appealed to have the baby checked again, the baby was taken to intensive care on the neonatal unit.

She said doctors told her Child D was ‘up and down’ but they were happy with her progress. The day before Child D died, a doctor said she was doing well and promised her mother she would be able to give her baby a cuddle and feed her the following day, she told the court.

In a statement, Child D’s father said: ‘I was never given the impression that (Child D’s) condition was life-threatening and it didn’t even cross my mind that she was in danger of dying. When she died, we just were not prepared for it.’

On 2 November the court heard how Ms Letby told police she found it ‘quite hard’ when one of her alleged victims lived for several hours after his catastrophic collapse.

Child C stopped breathing without warning just days after his premature birth on 10 June 2015. Jurors heard that an on-call consultant could not explain the ‘fairly minimal’ signs of life.

Ms Letby told police her only involvement with Child C was when she was asked to help with resuscitation

Ms Letby is accused of causing the collapse of Child C at about 11.15pm on 13 June by inserting air into the boy’s stomach via a nasogastric tube.

Palliative care was provided and no further breaths or heartbeat were heard some five hours later and Child C was pronounced dead at 5.58am on 14 June 2015, the court heard.

Ms Letby recalled he deteriorated not long after his first feed, but said she had no involvement in that. Her only involvement with Child C was when she was asked to help with the resuscitation attempt, she told police.

She went on to say she found the boy’s death ‘quite hard because he lived several hours (after the collapse)’ and she had ‘not seen that before’.

Ms Letby denies the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of ten others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.

The trial began in October and is expected to last six months.


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