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Thursday, October 10, 2024

The nine things we learned from the Lucy Letby inquiry this week

Families of the babies attacked by Lucy Letby gave heartbreaking evidence to a public inquiry describing their fight to find out the truth about how their children died.

Letby, 34, was found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more while working as a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.

The Thirlwall Inquiry, which is being held at Liverpool Town Hall, is examining how she was able to get away with her crimes for so long before she was stopped.

On Monday, parents of the victims bravely began giving evidence and revealed for the first time the extent to which they remained unaware of the hospital’s concerns as the tragedy unfolded.

Here are nine things we learned from the inquiry this week.

Mum only found out murder suspicions three years after baby’s death

None of the babies or their families can be named due to a lifelong anonymity order made by the courts during Letby’s criminal trials.

The mother of Child C, who died in June 2015, told the inquiry the first time she found out a nurse was being accused of deliberately harming her son was when Letby was arrested on suspicion of murder in July 2018.

She said she received a phone call from Cheshire Police in the early hours of the morning to let her know.

“We absolutely had no idea that there had been layer upon layer upon layer of concern voiced by various people within the hospital about the conduct of Lucy Letby and her association with these deaths,” she told the inquiry.

The nine things we learned from the Lucy Letby inquiry this week
Chair of the independent inquiry Senior appeal court judge Kate Thirlwall speaks at the Liverpool Town Hall, on September 9, 2024 (Photo by Peter Byrne / POOL / AFP)

“And to not inform us of any of this and for us to get a phone call out of the blue from a police officer in the early hours of the morning… it was an absolute shock that day. We had not anticipated that that was going to happen.”

The mother said she was not even aware that another infant had died the same week as her son at the Countess of Chester until the start of Letby’s criminal trial.

‘Ian Harvey is a disgrace’

The Thirlwall Inquiry heard that when medical director Ian Harvey met Child C’s mother in February 2017 he was aware at the time that serious concerns had been expressed by consultants that Letby had deliberately harmed babies, and that a report had criticised the quality of the care provided to Child C, concluding his death may have been preventable.

She told the inquiry: “To find out now that all the time Ian Harvey met with us in February 2017 he was well aware of both the concerns about Letby and the report of our son’s death did contain criticism is an absolute disgrace.

“I cannot understand this at all from the perspective of a medic or, in fact, any human level whatsoever.

“We continue to feel thoroughly betrayed over this. It has affected our grief, compounded our distress and given us a general sense of distrust that we didn’t have before.”

She confirmed to counsel to the inquiry Rachel Langdale KC that she wanted a face-to-face apology from Mr Harvey.

She said: “Yes. I feel very strongly , I felt at the time that we were being misled, that we were being kept in the dark.

TOPSHOT - A handout image taken from police bodycam footage released by Cheshire Constabulary police force in Manchester on August 17, 2023, shows the nurse Lucy Letby being arrested at home in Chester on July 3, 2018. Lucy Letby was on August 18, 2023, found guilty of murdering seven newborn babies and trying to murder six others at the hospital neonatal unit where she worked, becoming the UK's most prolific killer of children. Letby, 33 -- on trial since October 2022 -- was accused of injecting her young victims, who were either sick or born prematurely, with air, overfeeding them milk and poisoning them with insulin. (Photo by Cheshire Constabulary / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT " AFP PHOTO / Cheshire Constabulary/ Handout " - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS (Photo by -/Cheshire Constabulary/AFP via Getty Images)
Lucy Letby was found guilty of killing seven babies (Photo: Cheshire Constabulary/AFP via Getty)

“I feel very strongly now that Ian Harvey was desperately trying to stop us from asking further questions by providing a whitewash, a glossover of a report and hoping we would just take his word for it and not ask any more questions.

“I feel we were treated extremely disrespectfully and I think it has added hugely to our distress at what was already a distressing time.”

Hospitals with neonatal units asked if they have CCTV

Every hospital in England with a neonatal unit has been asked as part of the inquiry whether they have considered installing CCTV in the wake of Letby’s killing spree..

Child D’s mother said: “Every parent that can’t be at the hospital wants to know what is happening to their babies. There is nothing that could be bad about this. All there is is watching someone care for the baby.

“If I knew she had one collapse I would have stayed there all night. If I had access because there was CCTV or because we were being kept aware of what was going on, she wouldn’t have died.

“I would have been there so it wouldn’t have happened.”

Mum felt daughter’s death ‘didn’t make sense’ and asked for inquest

The inquiry heard Child D’s mother went on to request the hospital notes as she “clued up” on medical terms, protocols and guidelines.

It led to a meeting with the treating consultant paediatrician who told her that as a department they felt the most likely diagnosis was an “overwhelming infection”.

Child D’s mother pointed out that her daughter’s test result for infection had come back negative.

She said: “I said, ‘well you explain this to me, it doesn’t make sense’. She was getting better, not worse. She couldn’t explain.

“That wasn’t satisfactory to me. I said, ‘I am not accepting your finding, you have to do better than that’.”

In September 2015 she wrote to Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg to set out the results of her own research and requested a full inquest into Child D’s death and a review of the post-mortem examination.

She told the inquiry: “It was clear the Countess (hospital) had not provided all of the information, and what they had given was not true or accurate. It was upsetting that I had to their job. It was clear they were trying to hide things.”

CHESTER, ENGLAND - AUGUST 18: A general view of the Women and Children's Building at the Countess of Chester Hospital on August 18, 2023 in Chester, England. Lucy Letby, a former nurse at Countess of Cheshire Hospital, was convicted of murdering seven babies, and attempting to murder six more, in the hospital's neonatal ward between 2015 and 2016. She was found not guilty of two counts of attempted murder, while the jury did not reach verdicts on six further counts of attempted murder. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
A general view of the Women and Children’s Building at the Countess of Chester Hospital on August 18, 2023 in Chester. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

In January 2016 Mr Rheinberg told her that “on reflection” he had decided not to discontinue the investigation and to hold a full inquest.

The inquiry heard that an independent consultant paediatrician reported to the coroner that the death was “disturbing because the collapse was so sudden and unexpected”.

The inquest was put on hold, the inquiry heard, after Letby was first arrested by Cheshire Police in July 2018.

Mum calls for psychological screening of staff

The mother of Child A and Child B called for a psychological screening process to assess the mental state of any staff treating vulnerable patients.

She said: “If there was an assessment done, or if counselling was mandatory, whoever was talking to these staff might have seen some red flags.

“Something might have shown up in a discussion with these people, or in an evaluation, that might have needed more monitoring or maybe further assessment.”

The inquiry heard that an inquest took place in October 2016 into Child A’s death but the concerns that consultants had already voiced about Letby were not raised to the coroner.

Child A and B’s mother said: “At the inquest we had no idea, and from the trial we know that by that time they did suspect her but nobody mentioned it. Not once, and they should have.”

Mother learned of Letby’s crimes at criminal trial

The mother of twin boys targeted by Letby told the inquiry she “carries the sadness of other families” because she feels she could have stopped the serial killer earlier.

In August 2015, Letby assaulted Child E, which caused bleeding, and also injected air into his bloodstream. Nearly 24 hours later she poisoned Child F with insulin.

A doctor told the parents a post-mortem examination was not necessary for Child E, as it was thought he had died from a bowel condition which was common in premature babies, when in fact no sign of the condition was detected on a X-ray.

And they were informed that Child F’s deterioration was because of a catheter infection, and were unaware he had suffered an episode of hypoglycaemia and that blood tests had shown an abnormally high level of insulin.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, the mother of Child E and Child F said she learnt the full details of both incidents at Letby’s criminal trial.

She said: “It took us through our children’s lives essentially hour by hour, and to find out that Child E had that significant bleed to the point of it being very, very unusual, and for no post-mortem to be warranted from that, made me question why.

“Why was the post-mortem not mandatory? Why was it left to me to make that decision?”

Lucy Letby LETBY Lucy BSc Hons in Child Nursing. We are so proud of you after all your hard work. Love Mum and Dad Published on 01/12/2011 https://www.herefordtimes.com/announcements/congratulations/congratulations/9395359.lucy-letby/
Lucy Letby, 34, was convicted by a jury of murdering seven babies while working between 2015 and 2016

“I feel guilty for not requesting that, because if that had come back and something would have been on it, there is a lot of babies that could not have been involved in this case and it could have stopped there.

“That weighs very, very heavily on me and that decision was ultimately ours.

“That’s painful to think about so I carry our grief, but the sadness of the other families, because it should never have gone past that point.”

Inquiry chairwoman Lady Justice Thirlwall told her: “You have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about, nothing. You have nothing to blame yourself for, nothing at all.”

Hospital sent report to family in black taxi 30 minutes before publication

The mother of Child E and Child F said she first became aware of any investigation into what happened to her children in February 2017 when the hospital’s medical director Ian Harvey wrote to inform them about an external review.

She said: “I received that letter via a black taxi knocking on my door, about 30 minutes before that report was due to go live online on the hospital website. I was absolutely mortified.”

Her only previous contact from the hospital, she said, was when they rang twice to ask for the return of a breast pump, which she used at her son’s funeral, when she had in fact already returned it.

The inquiry has heard that families affected were provided with a redacted version of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health report which omitted details about concerns from consultants about “Nurse L”.

Child E and Child F’s mother told counsel to the inquiry, Rachel Langdale KC, she would have liked to have seen the full report at the time.

She said: “I think the Countess of Chester being transparent and open with what they were investigating would have given me peace of mind, not thinking I had missed something.

“I blamed myself for a lot of things that happened in that time. I don’t think it should have been held back. To do that, I think it’s quite hideous to be honest.”

Letby has ‘ruined out lives’

The mother of Child G, who Letby attempted to murder twice, said the nurse had “ruined our lives”.

Letby targeted the baby girl by overfeeding her with milk and pushing air down her feeding tube on September 7 and September 21 2015.

Child G sustained severe brain damage and requires high levels of care and support, the inquiry heard.

In a statement read on behalf of Mother G, she said: “I feel Lucy Letby has ruined our lives. She has ruined everything.

“Our daughter needs 24-hour care because of Letby. We don’t know how long she will live. It affects every single minute of all our days.”

Undated handout photo issued by Cheshire Constabulary/CPS of the corridor within the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit (showing the entrances to nurseries 2,3&4), which was shown in court on Tuesday. As the trial of Lucy Letby accused of multiple baby murders continues at Manchester Crown Court. Issue date: Tuesday February 14, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story COURTS Letby. Photo credit should read: Cheshire Constabulary/CPS /PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
The corridor within the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit, where Letby worked (Photo: Cheshire Constabulary/CPS/PA)

“For years we thought our daughter had suffered from neonatal sepsis and aspirated her vomit, causing her brain damage and making (her) the way she is now.

“We only found out years later that the blood tests that had been done at the time showed no evidence our daughter was suffering from sepsis.

“We thought our daughter’s brain injury was God’s will. We couldn’t do anything about it and we just had to accept it.

“Our poor daughter, oh my God, our precious little fighter who didn’t have much chance being so premature. Then when she was doing well, Lucy Letby made her collapse and caused her brain injury.

“I feel that the Countess of Chester have covered up what happened to our daughter for years. To my mind, the Countess of Chester was more concerned about their reputation than about our daughter’s life.”

Hospital bosses ‘facilitated a mass murderer’

Bosses at the Countess of Chester Hospital “facilitated a mass murderer” by ignoring concerns raised over Letby, the inquiry was told.

Serial killer Letby injected air into Child I’s stomach and bloodstream as she finally took her life on her fourth attempt.

In a statement read on her behalf, Child I’s mother told the inquiry: “I believe the doctors and nursing staff should have acted earlier and those in positions of authority at the hospital should have listened to them instead of trying to create their own narrative that Lucy Letby was a victim of bullying and harassment.

“Someone should have investigated the concerns fully at the time. This is what management are paid so handsomely to do. They shouldn’t have been concentrating on saving their own skins and jobs and reputations.

“Babies died because someone in an office being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds didn’t want the hospital to look bad if they shut the neonatal unit down while they investigated why so many babies were deteriorating when they should have been thriving.”

She went on: “I believe that much more should have been done after the first three babies had died within a short space of time in similar circumstances.

“Had prompt and effective action been taken at that time, so many other babies would have survived or not have suffered enduring life-changing harm.

“How many babies needed to die or be seriously harmed for action to be taken to stop Lucy Letby? Sadly, we all now know the answer.

“People paid huge salaries allowed this to happen. They made doctors apologise to Lucy Letby when she had murdered babies and continued to harm other babies. The Countess of Chester Hospital was totally blinded by self-preservation that they forgot why they exist – to remain true to the Hippocratic Oath.”

Child I’s mother told inquiry chair Lady Thirlwall that senior management should face sanctions if they ignore concerns raised by whistleblowers.

She said: “At the present time, there appear to be no sanctions against those who lied and kept information whilst babies were being killed and harmed by Lucy Letby.

“It was only when it became untenable to keep up the pretence that they finally opened up on the scale of concerns raised against her and the number of babies that she had harmed.

“I honestly believe that these people should have to explain why they didn’t do something earlier. Why they ignored the multitude of concerns raised about Lucy Letby’s conduct. Why their actions facilitated a mass murderer?”

Letby, 34, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.

The inquiry is expected to sit until early 2025, with findings published by late autumn of that year.

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