A nurse accused of murdering seven babies at a neonatal unit told the mother of one of the infants she killed “trust me” after the parent walked in on her attacking the child, a court heard.
The mother interrupted Lucy Letby – who is also alleged to have attempted to murder 10 other babies – attacking her son but did not realise it at the time, jurors were told.
The baby, a twin boy known as child E, was “distressed” and bleeding from the mouth when his mother arrived. Letby is said to have tried to reassure her, telling the mother: “Trust me, I’m a nurse.”
The day after Letby allegedly murdered child E, she tried to kill his twin brother, Manchester Crown Court heard.
The court was also told how a baby girl who Letby is alleged to have attempted to murder three times was left “severely disabled”.
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 multiple times.
On the second day of the prosecution opening, Nick Johnson KC said child E was murdered via an injection of air into the bloodstream.
On the evening of August 3 2015, child E’s mother visited her son at the neonatal unit. Mr Johnson said: "We say that she interrupted Lucy Letby who was attacking [child E], although she did not realise it at the time."
When the mother arrived, her son was "distressed" and bleeding from the mouth, the court heard. Mr Johnson said the mother recalled Letby had tried to reassure her and told her a registrar would review the youngster’s condition and she should leave the unit.
"’Trust me, I’m a nurse’. That’s what she told [the mother]," said Mr Johnson. "We suggest she was fobbed off by Lucy Letby."
Child E suffered significant blood loss later in the evening, with a treating registrar saying he had never encountered such a large bleed in a small baby.
Following child E’s death in the early hours of August 4, Letby is alleged to have made "fraudulent" nursing notes, which were "false, misleading and designed to cover her tracks".
Mr Johnson said Letby went on to show a "very unusual interest" in child E’s family, searching for them on social media two days after the baby’s death and again on numerous occasions in the following months, including on Christmas Day.
The court heard how on the day after Letby murdered child E, she tried to kill his twin, child F – allegedly using insulin to poison a baby.
Child F was prescribed a TPN (total parenteral nutrition) bag of fluids and later suffered an unexpected drop in his blood sugar levels and a surge in heart rate. Checks on his insulin levels were carried out which showed, “conclusive evidence” that someone had given child F insulin to poison him, jurors were told.
Mr Johnson said no other baby on the neonatal unit was prescribed insulin so child F could not have received the drug intended for another child by negligence.
The prosecution alleges that Letby injected insulin into the TPN bag before it was hung up to be given to the child.
Letby ‘tried to murder baby girl on three occasions’
Jurors were also told that Letby had tried to murder a baby girl on three separate occasions in September 2015.
The baby, child G, was born “exceptionally premature” four months earlier at a different hospital and weighed only 1lb 2oz.
Transferred to the Countess of Chester’s neonatal unit, she was “doing well” but in the early hours of the following day, the Crown says Letby fed an excessive amount of milk to child G through a nasogastric tube and also, prosecutors claim, injected air.
She collapsed and stopped breathing but survived and recovered at another hospital. There were two further attempts by Letby to kill the child on her return to the Chester hospital, jurors were told.
One occasion involved a monitor allegedly being switched off before it was “discovered” by Letby. The court heard child G had been left “severely disabled”.
Letby ‘searched Facebook for parents of boy she murdered’
The court heard how Letby searched for two of the baby’s parents on Facebook.
One of the searches came hours after she allegedly murdered the five-day-old boy by injecting air into his stomach through a nose tube.
Child C was born prematurely at 30 weeks on June 10, 2015, weighing only 800 grams, and despite going into intensive care was in good condition. On the night shift on June 13 and into the next day, Letby was working but the baby was in the care of another nurse.
Child C’s nurse was at a nursing station when the baby’s monitor sounded an alarm at about 11.15pm. When she got to his room, Letby was stood by his incubator – the third time in the space of a week after a baby had collapsed, showing the defendant’s alleged "constant malevolent presence", jurors heard. Letby is said to have told the other nurse: "He’s going. He’s going."
Mr Johnson said Letby sent a text message to an off-duty colleague saying she wanted to be in child C’s room as it would be “cathartic – in other words, would help her wellbeing – to see a living baby in the space previously occupied by a dead baby – child A – but she had been put in another room.”
Despite several hours of resuscitation attempts, child C was pronounced dead at 5.58am on June 14.
A review by a medical expert found "the only feasible mechanism" for the air in his body, which caused his collapse, was someone deliberately injecting it through his nose tube. An independent pathologist who reviewed the case concluded child C died because his breathing became compromised and he suffered a cardiac arrest.
Mr Johnson told jurors: "If you are trying to murder a child in a neonatal unit, it is a fairly effective way of doing it. It doesn’t really leave much trace."
He said on the afternoon of June 14, 2015 – hours after child C died – the defendant searched on Facebook for the baby’s parents. Mr Johnson suggested that from the timings, this was "one of the first things she did when waking up" after she had finished her shift at about 8am.
The court was also told how child D, a baby girl, is alleged to have been murdered by Letby with an intentional injection of air into the bloodstream.
The baby lost her colour and became floppy in her father’s arms shortly after she was delivered by Caesarean section.
But she responded well to treatment until she deteriorated and collapsed three times in the early hours of June 22, 2015.
During the second collapse, the baby was "distressed and crying", Mr Johnson said. Her monitor alarm sounded on the third collapse and she could not be revived.
In the wake of child D’s death and the preceding deaths and collapses, Letby sent "many messages" to friends in which she suggested they could all clearly be explained as natural causes.
Letby later told police she could not explain why she had searched on Facebook for child D’s parents. She was also asked about another message in which she had referred to an "element of fate" being involved.
Mr Johnson told the jury: "We say, tragically for [child D] her bad luck or fate was the fact that Lucy Letby was working in the neo-natal unit that night."
The trial continues.
Press Association contributed to this report
