Lucy Letby denies rooting in bin after baby resuscitation

Nurse Lucy Letby has denied she "hung around" after a shift to "root in a bin" for a paper towel used in a baby's resuscitation who she allegedly attacked.

The 33-year-old is charged with murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others at Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

The paper was found in a bag under her bed two years later when she was arrested at her then home in Chester.

She denies all the allegations.

Jurors at Manchester Crown Court have been told the paper towel acted as a live note of drugs given to the baby boy as medics battled for half an hour to save him.

The infant, Child M, collapsed on the neo-natal unit of the hospital in April 2016.

It is alleged the accused, from Hereford, tried to murder him when she injected him with air.

Nearly four hours after Child M was revived, the child's doctor "meticulously" recorded the process in his notes which included the administering of six doses of adrenaline.

Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC suggested to the defendant: "You hung around to get your hands on it before you left?"

Ms Letby said: "I stayed late to do the work that still needed doing, I was busy with other babies on the unit."

Mr Johnson said: "You were hanging around to get your hands on the paper towel?"

"No," replied the nurse.

Mr Johnson said: "To go rooting in the bin for the paper put there by your colleague."

Ms Letby said: "No, I have never rooted in a bin."

The prosecutor said: "Because you sabotaged [Child M] by injecting him with air?"

The accused said: "No I didn't."

A blood gas printout from Child M, along with several hundred shift handover sheets - some containing names of children she allegedly targeted - were also found in police searches.

Ms Letby has told the court the documents would innocently "come home" in her uniform pocket at the end of her shifts and she would "collect paper".

She has denied they were "important" to her, unlike household bills and bank statements that she would shred.

The nurse is also accused of attempting to murder another baby boy, Child N, two months later.

The prosecutor accused her of "doing something to destabilise" the infant at the end of a day shift in June.

A nursing colleague later noted Child N was "very unsettled early part of night".

Mr Johnson said: "Are you saying this is a coincidence this happened just after you went off shift?"

"Yes," said Ms Letby.

Mr Johnson said: "The reason you had done something to him... was to create the impression there was a progressing decline that you could take advantage of the next day."

The accused said: "No, that's not what happened."

The court has heard Child N's incubator alarm sounded and he deteriorated in Ms Letby's presence within three minutes of her arriving at the unit the following day.

Mr Johnson said: "You had set him up to fail at the end of the previous shift and you were making a beeline for him to make it look as if he had got a problem from the night shift."

"No," said Ms Letby.

Mr Johnson said: "It happened within a minute or two minutes of you arriving in the room?"

Ms Letby said: "Yes."

Mr Johnson said: "Just bad luck, is it?"

"Yes," repeated the defendant.

Earlier Mr Johnson went through a WhatsApp message exchange between Ms Letby and a friend who had teased her for being "flirty" with a doctor colleague, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Mr Johnson said: "She knew you were sweet on [the doctor], didn't she?"

Letby said: "What do you mean, sweet?"

Mr Johnson said: "That you had a crush on him."

"No," said Letby.

"There was nothing between me and [the doctor]."

Mr Johnson told the court that Ms Letby told her friend she had received a "strange message" from the doctor.

Her colleague said: "Did you? Saying what? Go Commando [laughing face emoji]."

The nurse replied with four laughing face emojis.

Mr Johnson asked the defendant: "What did you understand the message to mean?"

She replied: "I don't know, I can't say."

Mr Johnson said: "You understood it, you found it highly amusing. Do yourself justice, what do you understand 'go commando' to mean?"

"I don't know," said Ms Letby.

Mr Johnson reminded the accused that earlier in the trial she had "tried to get out the back of the dock" when the doctor first came to the witness box.

Ms Letby said: "Yes, because I felt unwell."

Mr Johnson said: "No, it's because you didn't like hearing your boyfriend giving evidence, did you?"

The defendant said: "That's unfair."

The trial continues.

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