Lucy Letby trial: Mum walked in on nurse killing baby, trial told

An alleged killer nurse was interrupted by the mother of one of her victims who paid her baby boy a visit at the neonatal unit, a court has heard.

Lucy Letby is accused of murdering five baby boys and two girls, and attempting to murder 10 other babies at Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016.

Manchester Crown Court heard Child E's mother did not realise he was being attacked and was told by the nurse the blood from his mouth was due to a tube.

Ms Letby, 32, denies 22 charges.

The nurse, of Hereford, is accused of murdering Child E and attempting to murder his twin, Child F, the following day.

The court heard how the twins had been born prematurely and Ms Letby was the designated nurse for both boys.

One night, their mother, who was an inpatient on the postnatal ward, decided to visit her sons in the neonatal unit.

The jury was told the mother interrupted Ms Letby, who was in the process of attacking Child E, but she did not realise this. Child E's mother found her son acutely distressed and bleeding from his mouth.

Ms Letby attempted to reassure the mother saying: "Trust me I'm a nurse."

The court heard the nurse urged the mother of Child E to go back to her ward, which she did, but was so concerned she phoned her husband.

Ms Letby later made a record on the nursing notes which was not true and "designed to cover her tracks", prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said.

"They fail to mention that Child E was bleeding at 21:00 BST and they mention a meeting between his mum and a doctor that neither of them remember."

The court heard Child E was bleeding so heavily that one of the doctors said he had never encountered such a large bleed in a small baby.

The jury heard after Child E's death his parents did not wish to have a post-mortem examination, the doctor on-call did not deem one necessary and the coroner's office agreed.

"As subsequent reviews have established that was a big mistake," Mr Johnson said.

He alleged Child E was murdered by an injection of air.

The prosecution also told the court Ms Letby added insulin to Child F's feed.

This caused Child F's blood sugar to start to drop calamitously while Ms Letby was present and continued after she had gone.

Mr Johnson said: "Somebody poisoned him. No other baby on the neonatal unit was being prescribed insulin. Therefore it couldn't have been negligence.

"You know who was in the room, and you know from the records who hung the [feed] bag."

The court heard Child F's nutrients bag was replaced and he survived, but the medical team on the unit were concerned and ordered checks.

It was also claimed Ms Letby took a "very unusual interest" in the parents of the twins, searching for them repeatedly on Facebook, including on Christmas Day in 2015.

The court heard the nurse allegedly attempted to murder one baby, Child G, who had been born at 23 weeks, three times.

The baby was born at a different hospital weighing 1lb 2oz (510g) and had later been transferred to the Chester hospital.

She had been there three weeks and was "perfectly well" but then vomited and showed signs of infection, the jury heard.

She was subsequently transferred away from the Countess of Chester Hospital back to the hospital where she was born, and made a "remarkable recovery".

The jury was told once Child G recovered, she was then transferred back to Chester, where Ms Letby allegedly gave her milk via a tube and in little over an hour she had projectile vomited twice and was not breathing.

There had been "no significant issues" with Child G "until Lucy Letby got involved", the court heard.

"Putting it simply the milk in her vomit did not come from nowhere. That doesn't happen by accident," Mr Johnson said.

An MRI scan taken between the events revealed neurological changes and an MRI scan some months later in August 2016 confirmed Child G had sustained irreversible brain damage.

The court also heard about Child C and D's alleged murders.

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

The trial heard Ms Letby agreed she had been the only person in the room when Child C collapsed and was supposed to be looking after another, more poorly baby, in another room.

The incident came six days after she allegedly killed Child A by injecting air into his bloodstream, and she later similarly attacked his twin sister, Child B, causing her to collapse.

"You can now see there was a pattern emerging," Mr Johnson said.

"Lucy Letby was the only person working on the night shift 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."

Mr Johnson told the court Ms Letby's method of attacking the babies was "beginning to develop".

"She had injected air into the bloodstream of the first twins, Child A and B, and varied this approach by injecting air into Child C's stomach via the nasogastric tube," he said.

Mr Johnson also alleged Ms Letby murdered Child D with an intentional injection of air.

The baby girl had an infection but was responding well to treatment until she deteriorated and collapsed three times and could not be revived.

At the time, three children had died and one had had a life-threatening episode in the neonatal unit and "only Lucy Letby was the constant presence", the court was told.

The jury has been told the trial may last up to six months.

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