Neonatal nurse Lucy Letby ‘returned to kill baby whose twin brother she had murdered just 24 hours earlier,’ court hears

Lucy Letby returned to kill a baby whose twin brother she had murdered just 24 hours earlier and attempted to murder a baby girl who was born weighing just over 1lb three times in the space of a month, a court has heard.

 

The nurse left the girl ‘severely disabled’ after overfeeding her with milk and injecting her with air, prosecutors said today. 

 

The nurse is accused of murdering five boys and two girls while working as a neonatal nurse.

 

A jury at Manchester Crown Court was told that the 32-year-old tried to kill the girl, known as Baby G, on September 7, 2015, the day after she passed a ‘significant date’ which saw nurses put out cakes and put up banners to celebrate.

 

The court heard that staff had put up a banner and cake to mark the occasion, but in the early hours of the next morning the girl collapsed and projectile vomited so forcefully it went onto the carpet and a chair next to the cot.

 

While the child was moved to a different hospital a day later, she was returned to Countess of Chester Hospital a week later, at which point Letby allegedly tried to kill her two more times in one shift on September 21.

 

It is claimed that the nurse also undertook Facebook searches of the child’s parents, including one on that day, something Letby told police she had no recollection of. 

 

Prosecutors also told the jury that Letby had tried to kill a child known as Baby F, less than 24 hours after murdering his twin, Baby E, who was found ‘acutely distressed’ and found bleeding from the mouth in his cot on August 3, 2015.

 

 

Earlier the court was told how the mother of the twins interrupted her attacking Baby E in the hospital’s neonatal unit, but the alleged baby killer ‘got rid’ of the panicked parent by telling her: ‘Trust me I’m a nurse’.

 

The trial heard that after Baby E’s death the following morning on August 4, 2015, the nurse would attempt to kill his brother by injecting insulin into nutrition bag just a day later.  

 

The nurse went on to show a ‘very unusual interest’ in the family of the twins, the court heard, with social media searches on them two days after the baby’s death and again on seven occasions, including on Christmas Day. 

 

Letby denies murdering seven babies – five boys and two girls – and attempting to murder 10 more infants by injecting insulin, milk or even air into their tiny bodies. Her parents Susan and John are supporting her at her six-month trial at Manchester Crown Court.

 

As the second day of Letby’s trial continues, Manchester Crown Court has heard: 

 

• Letby, 32, denies murdering seven premature babies and attempting to murder 10 more over 12 months. The deaths occurred at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. Letby was arrested three years after the death of her first alleged victim, Baby A;
• ICU nurse is alleged to have injected babies with insulin, air or pumped with milk to kill them – often during night shifts when parents were less likely to be there;
• Babies A, C and D were all murdered in the space of around 13 days, it is alleged; 
• The jury was told that Letby was stood next to the cot of Baby C when his monitor alarm went off and she told the colleague who rushed in: ‘He’s going, he’s going’. Baby A was murdered in the same room six earlier, prosecution claims;
• The day after allegedly murdering Baby E, Lucy Letby allegedly used insulin for the first time to poison a baby, the court heard, by trying to murder Baby E’s twin brother, Baby F; 
• Letby allegedly targeted twins on more than one occasion – and in some cases one was murdered and their sibling survived; 
• She is said to have searched for the families of her alleged victims families on Facebook and social media, including on Christmas Day;
• In some cases, Letby is alleged to have tried to kill Baby G on up to three occasions, including two times in one shift;

 

Prosecutors told a jury at Manchester Crown Court that Letby left Baby G ‘severely disabled’ after making multiple attempts to kill her in September 2015. 

 

It is claimed she targeted the baby after she was moved to Countess of Chester from Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside, where she had been born extremely prematurely at the age of 23 weeks and six days, and a weight of just 535 grams.

 

Nick Johnson KC, prosecuting, told the jury the mother “interrupted Lucy Letby who was attacking [Baby E]”.

 

He added: “She did not realise it at the time but I’m going to suggest why you can be confident that is what happened. When [she] arrived, [Baby E] was acutely distressed and he was bleeding from his mouth.”

 

Johnson said Letby allegedly tried to reassure the boy’s mother, telling her the blood was due to a nasogastric tube irritating his throat, adding: “Trust me, I’m a nurse’ – that’s what she [Letby] told the mother.”

 

The infant, who weighed 1.3kg (just under 3lbs) at birth, rapidly deteriorated and was pronounced dead less than five hours after Letby was seen attacking him, the jury was told.

 

A doctor present said he “had never seen a baby bleed like this” and that the child lost more than a quarter of his total blood volume, the court heard.

 

Baby E’s death was initially put down to a gastrointestinal disorder that can occur in premature babies and no postmortem was undertaken. This, Johnson said, was “a big mistake”.

 

Experts later concluded that Baby E died as a result of gas intentionally injected into his bloodstream and “bleeding indicative of trauma”, the jury was told.

 

The nurse allegedly “wiped out” the mother’s visit from the medical records then falsely claimed to be in another room when Baby E collapsed. This, the prosecution alleged, was Letby trying to establish an “alibi in someone else’s medical records”.

 

Jurors were told that Letby then took a “sinister” interested in Baby E’s twin brother, six-day old Baby F.

 

The nurse allegedly administered a feeding bag laced with insulin to Baby F less than 24 hours after his sibling had died.

 

The boy survived and when later asked in a police interview why she had searched for his parents on Facebook, Letby said it might have been “to see how [Baby F] was doing”.

 

The trial also heard on Tuesday how Letby, who was qualified to care for seriously ill newborns, texted a colleague to say it would be “cathartic” to be in a room where a baby had died – allegedly by poisoning – five days earlier.

 

She told her friend she wanted “to see a living baby in the space that had previously been occupied by a dead baby”, the jury of eight women and four men was told.

 

Although she was supposed to be caring for a baby in another room, Letby allegedly entered the room of a four-day-old boy and injected him with air through a nasogastric line to his stomach.

 

As fellow nurses failed to resuscitate the boy, Baby C, she told one colleague: “He’s going,” jurors were told.

 

Johnson said Letby searched for Baby C’s parents on Facebook hours after his death, adding: “The timing may suggest that it was one of the first things she did when she woke up.”

 

Another of her alleged victims, a three-month-old child, was left with “irreversible brain damage” after Letby tried three times to kill her by injecting milk and air into her nasogastric tube, jurors were told.

 

Jurors were told on Tuesday that Letby “was the only constant presence” when three babies died and one suffered a life-threatening collapse in two weeks on the neonatal unit in June 2015.

 

The defendant, from Hereford, listened from the glass-enclosed dock as the prosecution outlined its case on the second day of her trial on Tuesday. Relatives of some of her alleged victims sat in the public gallery metres to her right.

 

The trial continues.