Lucy Letby, the nurse on trial for murdering babies in her care, has told a jury that two babies were deliberately poisoned with insulin – but not by her.
The premature babies, identified as Child F and L, both survived the alleged attacks at Countess of Chester hospital.
Under cross-examination at Manchester crown court on Thursday, Letby also told a jury that a “gang of four” consultants conspired to wrongly accuse her, “to cover failings at the hospital”.
Letby, 33, denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others on the neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016. None of the babies can be named for legal reasons.
She is alleged to have intentionally added insulin to Child F’s intravenous feed bag on a night shift in August 2015, less than 24 hours after she allegedly murdered his twin brother, Child E.
She is accused of trying to kill Child L in April 2016, around the same time she allegedly tried to murder his twin brother, Child M, by injecting air into his bloodstream.
Nick Johnson KC, cross-examining Letby for a second day, asked her if she agreed that “someone” had “unlawfully” given Child F and Child L insulin. She agreed, saying that the feeding bags must have been tampered with by either someone on the unit or before the bags arrived on the ward.
“Insulin has been added by somebody – how or who I can’t comment on, only that it wasn’t me,” she said. “I don’t believe that any member of staff on the unit would make a mistake and give insulin.”
Letby was also asked why some of her colleagues on the neonatal unit suspected her of murder. “Are you suggesting there’s some sort of agreement between medical staff to get you?” asked Johnson.
Letby replied: “In the consultants group, I do believe yes.”
Asked who, Letby named Dr Stephen Brearey, Dr John Gibbs, Dr Ravi Jayaram and one other doctor who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Johnson replied: “Four doctors. A gang of four, let’s call them. What’s the conspiracy?”
Letby replied: “They have apportioned blame on to me.” Asked for their motive, she replied: “I believe to cover failings at the hospital.”
She said staff failings had contributed to the death of one baby, Child A, because he had been left without fluids for four hours because of problems with his feeding lines.
Jurors have been told that following her arrest a total of 257 shift handover sheets – some including the names of babies she allegedly harmed – were found at her then home in Chester and her parents’ address in Hereford. Johnson said there were so many that if piled up they were “almost the size of a phone book”.
She told the jury on Thursday that the sheets were “insignificant” and “just bits of paper”.
She said: “That is the truth. They have no meaning to me at all. I have copious pieces of paper and cards that I have not thrown away my whole life.”
Letby admitted sometimes visiting the unit at night while not working a shift.
She said this was to fill in paperwork or speak to colleagues and the night-time visits were owing to her shift patterns.
The jury heard that she had gone to the unit on her day off when a baby girl, Child G – whom she allegedly tried to murder – was seriously ill.
“You had been having a look at her, hadn’t you? Why are you looking at this child?” asked the prosecutor.
Letby said she had been “checking on her”, having come to the unit to complete paperwork relating to that baby.
She also denied feeling “a thrill” from photographing a sympathy card sent to the parents of Child I, a baby girl she allegedly murdered on the fourth attempt.
The trial continues.
