Lucy Letby: claim of targeted attack ‘completely unrealistic’
Posted 29 June 2023 - 14:38
Accused nurse’s defence barrister tells trial jury in his closing address there is no evidence for the Crown’s claim she tampered with bags of intravenous feed in an attempt to murder baby boy
Nurse Lucy Letby would have needed a ‘Nostradamus-like’ ability to see the future to target one of her alleged victims, a jury was told.
Ms Letby, 33, is accused of the attempted murder of a twin baby boy by poisoning him with insulin a day after she allegedly murdered his newborn brother. The prosecution suggests the neonatal nurse contaminated two bags of nutritional feed given intravenously to Child F at the Countess of Chester Hospital, where she worked.
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Prosecution maintains nurse added insulin to two nutrition bags
The Crown claims she injected insulin into the first bag of total parenteral nutrition (TPN) during a night shift in the early hours of 5 August 2015, which led Child F’s blood sugar levels to plummet. Ms Letby is then said to have ‘cynically covered her tracks’ as she contaminated a second stock maintenance bag to be used by an unsuspecting colleague after she clocked off.
Jurors at Manchester Crown Court have been told a blood sample taken when the second bag was in use later revealed a ‘biological fingerprint’ showing synthetic insulin was present – when none was prescribed.
Continuing his closing speech to the trial on 28 June, Ms Letby’s barrister Ben Myers KC said: ‘There is no evidence Miss Letby interfered with any bag of TPN. None. Blink, ladies and gentlemen, and you will miss that point.
‘We say there would be nothing quick about what the prosecution allege. It involves getting a syringe and the bag, drawing up the insulin and injecting it without raising suspicion and getting caught.
Allegations against Lucy Letby easy to make, difficult to carry out, says defence
‘The prosecution have suggested alternatively that the insulin was introduced when the bag was hanging. It still involves getting insulin from the fridge, having a syringe, getting it in the bag without detection when there is no reason for anyone to put insulin into a hanging TPN bag.
‘It’s quite easy to make the allegations but it would be quite difficult to carry out.’
Counsel said his client did not have exclusive access to the TPN bags. He said the evidence was that the overnight TPN bag, which lasts up to 48 hours, had to be replaced at noon later that day when a cannula inserted into Child F came out.
Mr Myers added: ‘How can Ms Letby be held responsible for that second bag on any fair or logical basis? A high level of insulin in a bag no-one could have foreseen would have been used, which comes into play hours after she has left.’
He said the evidence indicated there were five stock maintenance bags at the time in the neonatal unit’s fridge.
Mr Myers said: ‘So even if somebody guessed a maintenance bag may be needed in an unexpected way, they are not to know what bag would be taken. They would have to do the lot to make sure.
‘You will keep in mind that stock bags are not stored in any particular order. It’s like a series of Russian dolls of improbability. There is no evidence any other baby was affected at this time and you can be sure we would be told if there was.
‘How on earth is this a targeted attack unless Miss Letby had a Nostradamus-like ability to read the future? This is completely unrealistic.’
Lucy Letby, from Hereford, denies murdering seven babies and the attempted murder of ten others between June 2015 and June 2016.
The trial continues.
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