Concerns for months about letby but that senior managers ignored them and protected lucy letby. Our social Affairs Correspondent Michael Buchanan has this exclusive report. This is the story of an nhs trust that didnt properly investigate why 13 babies died in a one year period. Instead, it turned against the very people who wanted the police to examine the deaths. There is only one Serial Killer of babies that has worked in that organisation, and the Executive Team were not the people who were responsible for the deaths of those babies. But they had some opportunities to get to the bottom of what was happening. Susan gilbeyjoined The Countess Of Chester Nhs Trust A Month after lucy letby was arrested. Within two months, she was made Chief Executive, a post she held until last december. Through documents and speaking to staff, she learned what the trust knew about the Serial Killer. The first three babies died injune 2015. The Executive Team held a meeting at which it was agreed that a
Meeting was held. The medical director, ian harvey, gave a verbal report. He said external reviews had not highlighted any individual as being linked to the deaths and that the trust was ready to draw a line under the issues. The chief executive, tony chambers, said hed met lucy letby and her parents to apologise for what had happened. A statement Written By Letby was read out detailing how hard the past few months had been for her. The meeting decided lucy letby would return to the Neonatal Unit after the paediatricians had written a Letter Apologising to her. This is the letter they sent lucy letby, signed by all seven of the paediatricians in the unit. Against their wishes, they apologised for any inappropriate comments that may have been made, going on to say, we are very sorry for the stress and upset you have experienced in the last year. Though the paediatricians feared being reported to the regulator, they kept going, pressurising executives to call the police, something the tr
So those doctors sat with you. They poured out their worries. Did they talk about lucy letby . No, no. They talked actually at the time they didnt name anybody. What they talked about was in what they told when they contacted the chief constable, the fact that a nurse had been moved. They didnt actually name the nurse to me because i was at that meeting. I didnt have a lot of time because i had to make a decision on whether we were commencing an investigation or not. So i was focused on actually what does this mean medically . They told me that somebody had been moved and all the events had stopped. But i wasnt really drawn into that that much at that time. My first thoughts were as an sio, that if i had been doing something and Somebody Else had been moved, then i would stop as well. So, you know, i didnt get drawn into much about what that meant. I was more focused at that point on what has actually happened. So thats what our line of investigation was going to focus on initially. So
Conclusion. She will be sentenced here on monday at Manchester Crown court. She is now the most prolific killer of children in modern times. Shejudith morris sent this report. She thought shed get away with it, but this was the moment the game was up. Lucy, is it . Do you mind if i step in for a few seconds . Yes. Behind the door of this ordinary suburban house, britains most prolific baby killer was arrested three years after her murder spree began. Just sit there for me, lucy. Ive just had knee surgery. She worked here, on the Neonatal Unit at the countess of Chester Hospital. Her role, to care for the most vulnerable infants, but that couldnt have been further from her mind. The crying, ive never heard anything like it since. It was screaming. It was screaming, and i was like, what is the matter with them . Legally, we cant identify the families in this case, but their stories are distressing. These are the parents of twin boys born prematurely in 2015. Their mum was taking milk to
There are four families who havent had verdict delivered on what happened to their children, so that is something of course that the Crown Prosecution Service will be taking into account. Of course many questions about how a nurse working on a Neonatal Ward, an ordinary woman in her 20s, a woman who the jury woman in her 20s, a woman who the jury he heard repeatedly from seeing her messages, seeing her social media posts, was living what would appear to be an extremely normal life, was going on holiday, drinking with herfriends, spending time with her pets, and yet when she was on the ward, when she was at work, we know now that she was essentially killing children in her care, in some cases she used doses of insulin which she would inject into the baby so bodies, in some cases she would overfeed them with milk or liquids, and one thing which was described by the prosecution chillingly as her favourite way to kill children was administration of air, an injection of air into the bodies