Lucy Letby allegedly tried to murder a baby after a hospital boss refused to remove her from frontline duties despite her colleagues raising concerns, a court has heard.
A senior paediatrician told an executive that he and his team were “not happy” with Letby continuing to work on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester hospital following a series of infant deaths.
Dr Stephen Brearey told Manchester crown court that he raised the matter with nursing chief Karen Rees following the deaths of two newborn brothers on successive days in June 2016.
The prosecution say the infants, Childs O and P, were the 15th and 16th victims of Letby, 33, who denies the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of 10 others between June 2015 and June 2016.
The court previously heard that Child O was in good condition and stable up until the afternoon of 23 June when he suffered a “remarkable deterioration” and died.
His brother, Child P, died just over 24 hours later after also being attacked by Letby, it is alleged. The boys were two out of three triplets and the court earlier heard that following their deaths their parents begged that their surviving son be moved to another hospital.
Dr Brearey, head consultant on the unit, told jurors he held a staff debrief following the deaths of Childs O and P on 23 and 24 June.
Letby was present at the debrief, he said, and he asked her how she was feeling. Dr Brearey said: “I can remember suggesting to her she would need the weekend off to recover from the traumatic events.
“She didn’t seem overly upset in the debrief, or upset at all, and she told me she was on shift the next day, which was a Saturday.
“I was concerned about this because we had already expressed our concerns to senior management about the association with nurse Letby and the deaths we had seen on the unit.
“So, following the staff debrief, I phoned the duty executive on call, Karen Rees, senior nurse in the urgent care division.
“She was familiar with our concerns already. I explained what had happened and I didn’t want nurse Letby to come back to work the following day or until this was all investigated properly. Karen Rees said ‘no’ to that and that there was no evidence.”
He added: “I put it to her was she happy to take responsibility for this decision in view of the fact that myself and my consultant colleagues all wouldn’t be happy with nurse Letby going to work the following day.
“She responded she was happy to take that responsibility. We had further conversations with executives the following week and action was taken.”
Letby is accused of attempting to murder a further baby, Child Q, on Saturday 25 June by injecting him with air.
The jury has been told that Letby was moved to “clerical duties” around the time of June 2016 and that later a lengthy police investigation began.
She continued to undertake clerical duties at the hospital until July 2018, when she was first arrested.
Letby, originally from Hereford, denies all the allegations.
