Lucy Letby has denied ever having murdered babies as she gave evidence in her trial over the alleged attempted murder of a two-hour-old infant, insisting that she had never tried or intended to harm any newborn in her care at the Countess of Chester hospital.
She is accused of attempting to murder a premature infant, known as Baby K, by displacing her breathing tube in the early hours of 17 February 2016.
The jury was told that Letby, 34, was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempted to kill six others after a trial at Manchester crown court last year.
Giving evidence on Monday, she was asked whether her defence amounted to an assertion that she was “not the sort of person who would kill babies”. Nick Johnson KC, prosecuting, asked: “But you are just that sort of person aren’t you?”
Letby replied: “No.”
“You have killed seven babies on that ward haven’t you?” Johnson asked. “No, I haven’t,” she replied.
“And you have tried to kill six others, one on two separate occasions?” the prosecutor continued.
“No,” said Letby.
Letby is accused of trying to murder Baby K, who was born “extremely premature” at 25 weeks gestation, shortly after her nurse had left her side, by displacing the infant’s breathing tube.
Dr Ravi Jayaram, a consultant paediatrician, has told the jury he saw Letby standing beside the infant’s incubator failing to act as her blood oxygen levels fell to a “life-threatening” level.
An alarm that should have been sounding was silent, the court has been told.
Letby told the jury that she had no recollection of the incident and denied displacing Baby K’s endotracheal tube at about 3.45am on 17 February 2017, less than two hours after she was born.
The defendant, who sat in the witness box beside a security officer, told jurors that she had been caring for another baby in a separate room at the time of the alleged attempted murder.
A feeding chart shown to the court showed Letby had signed for a 55ml feed at 3.30am for that infant, who cannot be named. That task would usually take about 10 to 15 minutes, she said.
Letby said she also changed the infant’s nappy at about the same time judging by the baby’s records.
Letby is alleged to have been in nursery No 1 alone with Baby K at 3.40am “babysitting” the infant when her nurse, Joanne Williams, briefly left the infant’s side to update her parents.
Ben Myers KC, defending, asked: “Did you attempt to murder [Child K]?”
Letby replied: “No.”
Letby said she could not recall why she had searched online for [Baby K]’s surname 10 or 11 weeks before her first police interview in July 2018, more than two years after she had left the neonatal unit.
Johnson put to Letby that she “habitually” searched on Facebook for the parents of babies she had murdered and attempted to murder.
Letby said she looked up “many other” parents as well. Asked whether it was just an “innocent coincidence” that she had searched for the parents of babies she has been convicted of murdering, she said: “I’m not guilty of what I’ve been found guilty of.”
The jury was shown records of Letby’s Facebook searches for a number of the parents of babies who died or had been seriously injured on the neonatal unit. Letby denied she had a “fascination” with them. Johnson asked whether she carried those babies around in her head, to which she replied: “Yes, I carry a lot of babies around in my head”.
“But not the detail of [Baby K],” Johnson continued. “Is that convenient?”
Letby responded: “No, [Baby K] was on the unit very briefly”.
Johnson went on to suggest to Letby that her Facebook searches were evidence of the defendant “looking for grief”, asking: “The parents, on their Facebook, were you hoping to find evidence of grief?”
Letby replied: “No.”
The jury has been told that Baby K died several days later after being transferred to Arrowe Park hospital 16 miles away. Letby is not alleged to have caused the infant’s eventual death.
The court was told that Letby was involved in a grievance process at the hospital after she was removed from the neonatal unit in July in 2016. Letby said in her written defence statement that she did not “accept the good faith” of Jayaram “generally” due to his involvement with the grievance procedure.
Under cross-examination, Letby was asked why she had accepted in her police interview Jayaram’s account of seeing her beside Baby K’s monitor in the early hours of 17 February 2016.
“Because I assume the police had found that to be factually correct – that they would’ve got the facts right,” she answered.
Letby said she had “never accepted” Jayaram’s version of events and would never have tried or intended to harm an infant. “You are saying that because you wouldn’t have done what is being alleged, [that] what Dr Jayaram is saying can’t be true?” Johnson asked.
Yes,” Letby replied.
Letby said in her defence document that she questions whether Baby K received “optimal or appropriate” care on the neonatal unit, or whether the nursing staff had the proper experience in caring for a baby born 15 weeks premature.
The defendant confirmed that was still her case, telling jurors: “There were issues throughout [Baby K’s] time with the size of the tube needing and procurement of the tube and how that was managed.”
Johnson put to Letby that the issues with Baby K’s tube included someone displacing it. Letby replied: “Well, it wasn’t by me.”
The trial continues.
