Lucy Letby: Nurse denied dislodging baby's breathing tube, trial hears

Nurse Lucy Letby denied deliberately dislodging a premature baby girl's breathing tube and told police it could have slipped, a trial has heard.

The 33-year-old is accused of trying to kill the infant within two hours of her birth at the Countess of Chester Hospital in February 2016.

Manchester Crown Court heard Ms Letby was questioned by police three times about the baby known as Child K.

She denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others.

Ms Letby, originally of Hereford, told detectives she could recall Child K because "she was a tiny baby" and the hospital would not normally have babies of her age or weight.

But she said she could not remember the endotracheal (ET) tube slipping or the subsequent collapse.

The court heard how Child K was left briefly in Ms Letby's care while the infant's designated nurse left the nursery to update her parents on the labour ward.

Nick Johnson KC, prosecuting, previously told the court it was alleged Ms Letby "interfered with the tube and Dr Ravi Jayaram walked in to the immediate aftermath of that".

Child K's blood oxygen levels had dropped significantly but the monitor alarm was not sounding, jurors were told.

Dr Jayaram told the court he saw Ms Letby standing by the incubator and the ventilator but she was doing "nothing".

In a police interview, Ms Letby said the baby's designated nurse would not have left unless she was stable and the tube was in place.

Mr Johnson, who read out part of Ms Letby's interviews to police, said: "She stated she would have raised the alarm if Dr Jayaram had not walked in and if she had seen the saturations dropping or that the tube had slipped.

"Miss Letby thought it possible that she was waiting to see if [Child K] self-corrected," he said.

"She explained that nurses don't always intervene straightaway if levels were not 'dangerously low'."

She denied dislodging the baby's ET tube and said it could slip if it was not secured properly.

Child K was transferred to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside, later that day but she died three days later.

Jurors were told the Crown did not allege Ms Letby caused her death.

The prosecution told the jury that medical experts Dr Dewi Evans and Dr Sandie Bohin would not be called to give evidence regarding Child K.

Mr Johnson said: "Expert evidence is admitted into a criminal trial to help you understand or to inform you of medical or scientific matters which fall outside of your experience."

He said it was agreed that "nothing either Dr Dewi Evans or Dr Sandie Bohin" could provide would "add to the evidence you have heard so we are not going to call them at this stage".

The trial continues.

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