A nurse accused of murdering seven babies at a neonatal unit sent a sympathy card to the parents of an infant she killed on her fourth attempt, a court has heard.
While the mother of the baby girl, child I, bathed her recently deceased daughter, defendant Lucy Letby is said to have entered the room and, in the words of the parent, “was smiling and kept going on about how she was present at [child I’s] first bath and how much [child I] had loved it”.
Letby sent a sympathy card to the parents of the baby – keeping an image of it on her phone, jurors were told.
On the third day of the prosecution opening at Manchester Crown Court, Nick Johnson KC said the alleged murder of child I was an “extreme example even by the standards of this overall case”.
Mr Johnson said: “This is a case where we allege Lucy Letby tried four times to kill her. [Child I] was resilient but ultimately at the fourth attempt Lucy Letby succeeded and killed her.”
Letby, 32, has denied murdering five boys and two girls and attempting to murder another five boys and five girls at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. She is alleged to have tried to murder some of the babies more than once.
Letby is alleged to have first injected air into child I’s stomach through a nasogastric tube – just days after attempting to murder another baby, child H.
In the second alleged attempt on her life, jurors were told a night-shift colleague recalled seeing Letby standing in the doorway of a darkened room in the neonatal unit when the defendant remarked that child I looked pale.
The fellow nurse turned on the light and saw child I “appeared to be at the point of death and was not breathing”. Mr Johnson said jurors may wonder how Letby could make the observation of child I’s appearance by looking into a darkened room.
The court heard that child I collapsed and required chest compressions in the early hours of October 23 2015, but was successfully resuscitated.
Less than an hour later the child’s monitor alarm in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital sounded.
Mr Johnson said that a colleague of the defendant responded and found Letby standing by the child’s incubator. The court heard that the nurse wanted to intervene as child I was “distressed” but Letby said “they would be able to sort it”.
Child I collapsed and died after attempts to revive her were unsuccessful.
Child I’s mother was allowed to bathe her daughter after she died, Mr Johnson told the court. He said: “Lucy Letby came into the room and in the words of (the mother) ‘was smiling and kept going on about how she was present at (Child I’s) first bath and how much (Child I) had loved it’.”
Mr Johnson said an expert paediatrician who reviewed child I’s case concluded the baby’s deteriorations were consistent with the deliberate administration of a large amount of air into her stomach.
The medic also believed that on the final occasion the baby had been injected with air into her bloodstream, which led to her “screaming”, followed quickly by her collapse.
When interviewed by police, Letby was asked about a sympathy card she had sent to child I’s parents. Mr Johnson said: “She said for a nurse to send a card was not normal and it was the only time she had done it, but it was not often the nurses got to know a family as well.”
Letby accepted she kept an image of the card on her phone, Mr Johnson said.
Letby could not recall taking an interest in child I’s parents on Facebook in the early hours of October 5 – a day off duty – and also making successive searches on the parents of other youngsters involved in the case.
The court also heard how Letby twice attempted to murder another of the babies on successive night shifts in September 2015.
The baby girl, child H, suffered two “profound” collapses, requiring resuscitation with the use of adrenaline. At the time, no clear cause for either incident was identified.
The baby showed “dramatic improvement” when transferred to another hospital before she later returned to the Countess of Chester and was eventually discharged.
Mr Johnson said: “It is a notable fact in the case of [child H] and others that as soon as children were removed from the Countess of Chester and the sphere of influence of Lucy Letby, it was often followed by their sudden and remarkable recovery.”
The trial continues.
Press Association contributed to this report
