A nursing boss has described how she “pleaded” with a hospital executive to contact police over allegations Lucy Letby was harming babies.
Karen Rees, the head of nursing in urgent care at the Countess of Chester hospital, said she wanted a criminal investigation because other reviews were “getting nowhere” and “relationships were breaking down all over the place”.
Rees said she had “never been so relieved” as when police were eventually called in May 2017 – more than a year after executives were first alerted to concerns about Letby – but admitted she and other managers were “all at fault” for not contacting them sooner.
She told the Thirlwall inquiry she initially believed the suspicions about Letby were fuelled by a “personal” dislike of her by two consultant paediatricians.
The inquiry, chaired by Lady Justice Thirlwall, is examining the events surrounding the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of seven more by Letby in the year to June 2016.
The BBC’s Panorama programme reported on Monday that “new evidence” suggested the nurse, who is serving a whole-life prison term, harmed more babies in her care – including a third possible insulin poisoning.
It cited medical records appearing to show that the newborn had been administered insulin shortly after Letby took over his care in November 2015.
Tests later revealed the baby had congenital hyperinsulinism – a condition where the body produces too much insulin – but experts told the BBC this could not explain such an exceptionally high insulin reading for the infant.
Letby’s legal team disputed the allegation and suggested the tests used to record blood insulin levels were unreliable. It is understood that Cheshire constabulary investigated this insulin case before Letby was charged in November 2020.
At the inquiry, Rees said she believed she was made aware of concerns about the rise in deaths on the neonatal unit in either December 2015 or January 2016, at least four months after she took over as head of nursing for urgent care in August 2015.
Rees said she was not involved in any meetings with senior doctors who raised concerns about Letby’s connection to the series of unexpected and unexplained deaths as early as June 2015.
She said one of the consultants, Dr Stephen Brearey, told her in late June 2016 that his concerns were based on “gut feeling” and suggested that a “drawer of doom” in his desk contained evidence that implicated Letby in harming babies but that he refused to share the details.
Rees said Brearey had “agitated” that she remove Letby from the neonatal unit during two conversations on 24 June 2016 – immediately after the murder of two triplet boys that day – but that she had refused because she had not seen any evidence.
She accepted that the concern of senior doctors should have been enough to withdraw the nurse from frontline duties, but that she felt “bullied and intimidated into making a decision”. She added: “I thought it was personal and perhaps I was slighted by that.”
Rees admitted she became too close to Letby when she was tasked with supporting her after the nurse’s removal from the unit in July 2016.
Text messages shown to the inquiry show the head of nursing telling Letby “hang on in there girl … your nursing team are fully behind you. We will get through this.” Another said: “Let’s hope we get closure this year!”
In December 2017, seven months after the police had been contacted, Rees texted Letby to say: “We’ll continue to fight for you,” the inquiry heard.
The inquiry is expected to sit until early 2025, with findings published by late autumn of that year.
