Mother ‘interrupted’ murder-accused nurse attacking child, court told

A hospital nurse accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others was interrupted by the mother of one of her alleged victims as she attacked her son, a court heard.

Jurors were told that the mother-of-twins did not realise at the time what was going on with her son at the neo-natal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, where nurse Lucy Letby is alleged to have attacked the 17 children.

The mother had gone to visit her prematurely born twin sons, child E and child F, on the evening of August 3 2015 and found E “distressed” and bleeding from the mouth, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Nick Johnson KC, continuing the prosecution opening into a second day, said Letby, 32, tried to reassure the mother, telling her a registrar would review the youngster’s condition and she should leave the unit.

“‘Trust me, I’m a nurse’. That’s what she told (the mother),” Mr Johnson said.

“We suggest she was fobbed off by Lucy Letby.

“We say that she interrupted Lucy Letby who was attacking (child E), although she did not realise it at the time.”

Child E went on to suffer significant blood loss later in the evening, with a treating registrar saying he had never encountered such a large bleed in a small baby.

Following child E’s death in the early hours of August 4 2015, it is alleged Letby made “fraudulent” nursing notes which were “false, misleading and designed to cover her tracks”.

And the day after allegedly murdering child E, Letby is accused of trying to kill his twin brother, child F, using poison for the first time it is claimed, by injecting a fluid bag with insulin.

She went on to show a “very unusual interest” in the twins’ family, Mr Johnson said, with social media searches on them two days after the youngster’s death and again on numerous occasions, including on Christmas Day.

The jury has now heard details of seven of the 17 children Letby is alleged to have murdered or attempted to murder.

Earlier, the court heard Letby allegedly murdered a five-day-old boy, child C, just days after claims she killed another baby.

Letby allegedly injected air into the stomach of the tiny, premature child through a nose tube, causing his breathing and heart to stop.

Letby’s first alleged murder, of child A, is said to have happened on June 8 2015. She is accused of injecting air into the boy’s bloodstream and similarly attacking his twin sister, child B, causing her to collapse.

Letby was working the nightshift on June 13 and into the next day, looking after a baby, with child C in the care of another nurse, the court heard.

Child C’s nurse was at a nursing station when the baby’s monitor sounded an alarm at about 11.15pm, the court was told.

When she got to his room, Letby was stood by his incubator – the third time in the space of a week after a baby had collapsed, showing the defendant’s alleged “constant malevolent presence”, jurors were told.

Despite several hours of resuscitation attempts, child C was pronounced dead at 5.58am on June 14.

Mr Johnson said: “Lucy Letby was the only person working on the nightshift when child C died who had also been working on either of the shifts when child A died and his twin sister child B collapsed.”

It is alleged child D was also murdered by Letby by an injection of air into the baby’s bloodstream.

She responded well to treatment in the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit until she deteriorated and collapsed three times in the early hours of June 22 2015, the court heard.

During the second collapse, the youngster was “distressed and crying”.

The child’s monitor alarm sounded on the third collapse and she could not be revived.

The court heard Letby sent “many messages” to friends in the wake of child D’s death and the preceding deaths and collapses, one message referring to “an element of fate”.

Mr Johnson told the jury: “We say, tragically for (child D) her bad luck or fate was the fact that Lucy Letby was working in the neo-natal unit that night.”

Letby is also accused of trying to murder child G on three separate occasions in September 2015.

The youngster was born “exceptionally premature” up to four months earlier at a different hospital and weighed just 1lb 2oz.

Transferred to the Countess of Chester’s neo-natal unit, she was “doing well” – reaching September 6, a “significant date” of 100 days passing since the youngster’s birth – and such milestones were marked by the nurses putting up a banner and making a cake.

But in the early hours of the following day, the Crown says Letby fed an excessive amount of milk to child G through a nasogastric tube and also, prosecutors claim, injected air.

She collapsed and stopped breathing but survived and recovered at another hospital. The jury was told there were two further attempts by Letby to kill the child on her return to the Chester hospital.

One occasion involved a monitor being switched off before being “discovered” by Letby, the court heard.

Child G had been left “severely disabled”.

Letby, from Hereford, denies murdering five boys and two girls and trying to murder another five boys and five girls.

The trial was adjourned until Wednesday morning.