Lucy Letby responded to the death of a newborn baby in a manner that a children’s nurse said she had “never seen” before or since, a public inquiry has been told.
Letby was heard discussing in an “excited” way the death of two triplet babies in 24 hours in June 2016. Nicola Lightfoot, the deputy children’s ward manager at the Countess of Chester hospital, said she heard Letby say in an animated way to a colleague immediately after the second death: “You’ll never guess what just happened.”
Lightfoot said: “It was like she was talking about some exciting event she had seen or witnessed on the unit … it wasn’t an appropriate response to the death of a child. I had never – and I have never since – seen a response like that from a nurse involved in a child’s passing.”
Lightfoot said she was “quite shocked” by Letby’s response to the deaths of the two days-old triplets, which the inquiry has heard left nurses “stunned” because the infants had been assessed as “doing really well” before they died suddenly.
Another nurse, Melanie Taylor, told the Thirlwall inquiry last week how Letby had discussed a child’s death with her in an “excited” and “gossipy” way that she found unusual.
The inquiry at Liverpool town hall is investigating the events surrounding the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of seven other newborns for which Letby, now 34, has been convicted.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, Lightfoot described how she mentored Letby in her final placement as a student nurse in 2011 and failed her due to concerns about her competency.
The deputy manager said she was “concerned about her interaction, how she communicated – I felt it was lacking” and that “her clinical knowledge wasn’t where it should be”.
She added: “I found Letby to be quite cold. I didn’t find a natural warmth exuding from her that I expect from a children’s nurse.”
Another of Letby’s mentors, Sarah Jayne Murphy, said in a written statement that she found that Letby “did not show good interpersonal skills with parents”, and she and other staff found her “awkward and quiet”.
Murphy said it was unusual for a student nurse to fail their final placement and that Letby appealed against her fail, claiming there had been a “clash of personalities” between her and Lightfoot.
Murphy said Letby went on to graduate successfully from her student training after completing the three competencies that she had previously failed.
Lightfoot told the inquiry that a resident doctor said: “I see Nurse Death’s on again,” when the second triplet died in June 2016 as part of “gossip” linking Letby with the high mortality rate.
By that time a group of consultant paediatricians had connected the nurse to the “unexpected” and “unexplained” deaths of seven newborns and a number of near fatal deteriorations.
Letby, from Hereford, was removed from the neonatal unit in July 2016 when senior doctors urged executives to contact the police.
Instead, the hospital’s medical director, Ian Harvey, ordered two independent investigations into the causes of the unusual incidents before contacting the police nearly a year later, in May 2017.
Letby remained employed by the Countess of Chester hospital in a non-clinical role until her first arrest in July 2018, the inquiry has heard.
Another medic, referred to as Nurse ZC, said on Monday that she mentioned the connection between Letby and the unusual deaths to Lightfoot in June 2016 and asked: “Is it not concerning?”
Nurse ZC said Lightfoot “shrugged her shoulders” at the comment and Nurse ZC did not hear anything further.
Lightfoot said on Tuesday she did not recall the conversation. She said she warned staff in briefings not to indulge in “malicious gossip” about Letby but denied these were to “silence anybody”.
The inquiry, chaired by Lady Justice Thirlwall, is expected to sit until early 2025, with findings to be published by late autumn of that year.
