Prosecutors believed the collapses and deaths of 17 babies were the work of nurse Lucy Letby. Photo / Supplied
Prosecutors believed the collapses and deaths of 17 babies were the work of nurse Lucy Letby. Photo / Supplied
UK nurse Lucy Letby, charged with killing seven babies and trying to kill 10 others, considered coming to New Zealand, a Manchester court has heard.
Letby, 33, is fighting murder charges over the deaths of five baby boys and two girls, and attempted murder charges over five boys and five girls, from her time caring for the children at the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between 2015 and 2016.
Prosecutors allege she injected air or milk into the babies’ bloodstream, or via a tube in their stomachs, poisoned others with insulin and deliberately dislodged a breathing tube in another baby.
On Wednesday, the Manchester Crown Court heard evidence of how Letby considered coming to New Zealand, the Daily Mail reports.
Letby’s colleague Dr Alison Ventress intended to head to New Zealand and on September 30, 2015, texted Letby saying: “Defo come to NZ then! I could use a friendly face!!”
Letby replied, saying: “Haha not brave enough to up & leave everything. I couldn’t leave my parents. They would be completely devastated. Find it hard enough being away from me now and it’s only 100 miles.”
“Aww where are they based?” Dr Ventress wrote back.
“Hereford,” Letby replied. “I came here to uni & didn’t go back. They hate it & I feel very guilty for staying here sometimes but it’s what I want. Families are tough aren’t they!”
Lucy Letby worked in the neonatal unit at Countess of Chester Hospital. Photo / Supplied
The court also heard evidence about Letby’s ninth alleged victim, Child I, who was born in August 2015 and died two months later. The list of Letby’s alleged victims stretches to Baby Q.
In a statement for the court, Child I’s mother described how she noticed her daughter was much improved about the six-week mark.
“She was looking around the room now, taking it all in. 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.”
The mother said Letby helped her prepare to give her daughter a bath for the first time.
“I was so pleased to be able to bathe her. [Child I] was obviously enjoying it because she was smiling, Lucy even offered to take some photos using my mobile, which I agreed to,” the mother said.
“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.”
Prosecutors alleged Letby went on to try to kill Child I, firstly while working a day shift on September 30, then again during night shifts on October 12 and 13, before the baby died on October 23.
The child’s mother said she was called in the middle of the night and told to get to the hospital as soon as possible.
When she arrived, she found Letby alongside Dr John Gibbs and another nurse, who had been trying desperately to resuscitate her daughter for 20 minutes.
“I could see every time they were pumping her stats would go up, but when they stopped she flatlined every time.
“I remember thinking they can’t keep doing it.”
Lucy Letby denied the charges of murder and attempted murder. Photo / Facebook
When they eventually stopped, Letby and the other nurse asked if the mother wanted to bathe her daughter’s body one last time.
“[Letby] 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 realised and stopped. It was not something we wanted to hear.
“I remember it was Lucy who packaged up [Child I’s] belongings to go home.”
The mother said she didn’t want an autopsy done but Dr Gibbs informed her because the death was unexpected, an examination was required to clear the hospital of any fault.
In his opening statements in the case, in October last year, Ben Myers KC said the defence believes Letby did not cause any harm to Child I and that rather, her health problems “may well have been inevitable given her extreme prematurity”.
The defence claims there were widespread problems in the neonatal unit, including understaffing issues, and suggests a range of causes of death for the babies.
But prosecutors believe the collapses and deaths of all 17 babies were the work of Letby, who prosecutor Nick Johnson described in his opening address as a “constant malevolent presence” at the neonatal unit when the children collapsed or died.
Police opened an investigation into the deaths of the babies at Countess of Chester Hospital in May 2017. Letby was arrested three times in connection with the deaths before she was charged in November 2020.
