‘Smiling’ nurse Lucy Letby accused of killing baby girl after four attempts

MANCHESTER, England – ‘Smiling’ nurse Lucy Letby offered to take photos of a baby girl after murdering her at the fourth attempt, a court heard.

Letby, 33, allegedly injected air into the premature infant’s feeding tube and bloodstream. Prosecutors say she tried three times to kill the tiny baby before succeeding the fourth time.

Letby is on trial in the United Kingdom and denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.

A jury at Manchester Crown Court heard how one baby, who can only be referred to as Child I for legal reasons, weighed only 2 pounds and 2 ounces when she was born 10 weeks premature at Liverpool Women’s Hospital August 2015.

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She was transferred to the Countess of Chester Hospital later that month, and it is alleged Letby first tried to kill the infant during a day shift on Sept. 30, 2015, and twice during night shifts the following month.

Letby allegedly then caused Child I’s fatal collapse on Oct. 23, 2015, and jurors heard a statement from her mother in which she recalled how she was called at home in the early hours that day and asked to attend the hospital urgently with her partner.

On arrival, she saw medics, including Dr. John Gibbs, trying to resuscitate her daughter.

“I heard them all counting times,” she said.

“I asked Dr. Gibbs how long had they been doing this, to which he said 20 minutes.

“I remember thinking they can’t keep doing it.

“I said to Dr. Gibbs ‘You can’t do any more’.”

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After Child I was pronounced dead, her parents were moved to a private room, where Letby and another nurse asked if they wanted her to bathe Baby I’s body.

The mother said she agreed, because she “didn’t want to look back and regret it.”

She said, “Lucy brought the bath in. She said she could come in and take some photos which we could keep.” 

“While we were bathing her, Lucy came back in. She was smiling and kept going on about how she was present at the first bath and how [Child I] had loved it.

“I wished she would just stop talking. Eventually she realized and stopped. It was not something we wanted to hear.”

Earlier, the mother said that although Child I had initially been unwell due to her prematurity, she felt her daughter was well enough to go home after six weeks.

She said, “I was able to sit her on my knee. I remember looking at her and thinking ‘We are going home’. She looked like a full-term baby. She didn’t look frail or small.”

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The mother added, “I didn’t have too much to do with Lucy. She always appeared reserved compared to other nurses. She didn’t really interact with parents.”

The court heard evidence from medical staff about Child I’s fluctuating condition in hospital.

Baby I experienced oxygen “desaturation” at times, they said, and needed ventilation, but this was “normal” in premature babies.

At an earlier hearing, lawyers for Letby said they did not accept she harmed Child I and a series of medical problems may have been “inevitable” due to the infant’s “extreme prematurity.”

The court heard how Letby had sent a sympathy card to the infant’s parents and also kept an image of it on her phone.

The trial – expected to last at least six months – continues.