Lucy Letby trial: Medic denies 'touting' to work with police

Letby, 33, is accused of the murders of seven infants and the attempted murders of 10 others when she worked as a nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital's neo-natal unit.

Retired consultant paediatrician Dr Dewi Evans has been called by the prosecution to give expert evidence to the court, after he was tasked by Cheshire Police in the summer of 2017 to look at a series of collapses on the unit.

Dr Evans went on to write a number of reports about his findings, Manchester Crown Court has been told.

On Tuesday, jurors were read an email sent by Dr Evans to the National Crime Agency (NCA) in May 2017, ahead of his involvement with Cheshire Police.

In his message to "Nick" at the NCA's national injuries database, Dr Evans wrote: "Incidentally I've read about the high rate of babies in Chester and that the police are investigating.

"Do they have a paediatric/neonatal contact? I was involved in neonatal medicine for 30 years including leading the intensive care set-up in Swansea. I've also prepared numerous neonatal cases where clinical negligence was alleged.

"If the Chester police had no-one in mind I'd be interested to help. Sounds like my kind of case.

"I understand that the Royal College (of Paediatrics and Child Health) has been involved but from my experience the police are far better at investigating this sort of problem."

Ben Myers KC, defending, said to Dr Evans: "This is you putting yourself forward. In effect, touting for this job."

Dr Evans replied: "I was offering my professional opinion if that was in their interest."

Mr Myers said: "It's you ready to give them what they wanted, Dr Evans?

The witness said: "No, no. I have dealt with several police cases where I have said 'this case doesn't cross the threshold of suspicious death or injury', or whatever.

"My opinions are impartial and independent.

"I also give evidence to law firms representing defendants. In the last five years I have given more reports relating to defendants than the police or the prosecution."

Mr Myers went on: "At some point before you started writing reports you were told by the police about suspicious rashes and air embolus, weren't you?"

Dr Evans said: "That is completely untrue. It's totally untrue.

"The first time I heard a local doctor mention air embolus was a couple of weeks ago.

"The first person I know to raise the area of air embolus was me. I did that in case number one and I thought 'oh my god, what is going on here?'

"I was not told anything about any suspect. I knew absolutely nothing."

Last month Countess of Chester consultant Dr Ravi Jayaram told the jury a "chill went down my spine" in June 2016 when he read a research paper that described the effects of air embolism.

He said it "fitted" with the fleeting appearance of purple and pink patches seen on the skin of a number of collapsed babies that he and colleagues had treated.

Letby is accused of attacking several of her alleged victims by injecting air into their circulation and causing an air embolism - a blockage in their blood supply.

The defendant, originally from Hereford, denies all the offences said to have taken place between June 2015 and June 2016.

Letby is accused of attempting to murder one of her victims, a baby boy known as Child N, on three separate occasions.

She allegedly made her first attempt in the early hours of June 3 2016 and then twice more 12 days later - shortly after she started her day shift and again in the mid-afternoon.

Dr Evans said a doctor's note of Child N "screaming" on June 3 was an "extremely unusual finding".

He told prosecutor Nick Johnson KC: "It struck me that something had been done to this baby to cause this episode of screaming."

He said that during his involvement in the case he became aware of research papers which documented two accidental intravenous injections of air into babies who screamed, collapsed and then died.

Dr Evans said the June 3 event was reminiscent of loud crying in two other cases the jury had heard about - Child E and Child I.

Dr Evans agreed with Mr Myers that he did not confirm air embolus as his "most likely" diagnosis until his third report on Child N in October 2021.

Mr Myers pointed out that Child N appeared to have recovered from a drop in his oxygen levels in just "seven minutes".

He said: "This must be the swiftest air embolus in the history of air embolus. A world record."

Dr Evans said: "As I have said before, it depends on the volume of air and the rate it is given."

Mr Myers said: "You have put this in because you want to find something to support this allegation and this is the best you could come up with, isn't it?"

Dr Evans replied: "No it's not that at all - you cannot overlook the events that we have discussed over the past few months."

Mr Myers put it to Dr Evans the two baby deaths he referred to from research papers had "factually and clinically nothing in common" with the treatment of Child N.

Dr Evans said: "That is incorrect. I have quoted papers that associate screaming with injections of air. I have not taken it any further.

"This is something we have heard in other cases in this trial."

The trial continues on Wednesday.