A nurse accused of murdering seven babies was seen crying as she said something to the effect of “it’s always me when it happens”, a court has heard.
Lucy Letby, 33, is said to have made the remark amid a series of collapses of infants at the Countess of Chester hospital’s neo-natal unit. Letby denies murdering seven babies and attempting to kill 10 others between June 2015 and June 2016.
A GP told Letby’s trial at Manchester crown court on Friday that she saw the defendant in tears while talking to a colleague in one of the care rooms on the unit.
Dr Lucy Beebe told jurors: “I remember Lucy crying with another nurse and it was very much of the gist of ‘it’s always me when it happens, my babies, it’s always happening to me a lot’.”
Philip Astbury, prosecuting, asked: “Who was saying that?” Beebe replied: “Lucy.”
Astbury said: “You can’t remember precisely when that was?” Beebe said she could not recall exactly when it happened.
Beebe agreed with Letby’s barrister, Ben Myers KC, and also told police that the defendant’s tearful exchange “seemed a pretty normal reaction” given the upsetting events at the hospital.
The witness said she had cared for a premature-born girl referred to in court as Child I during her spell as a trainee doctor at the Countess of Chester. Letby is accused of murdering Child I by injecting her with air in the early hours of 23 October 2015.
It is alleged to have been Letby’s fourth attempt to deliberately harm the baby, after attempts on 30 September, 13 October and 14 October.
Beebe said: “I recall [Child I] because it was unusual that she was seemingly well and then became unwell. In my memory I felt like she was shipped out to a tertiary centre, made a rapid recovery and then was brought back very quickly.
“It certainly stuck in my memory because it had never happened to a baby I had been involved in the care of before or since, at any of the neo-natal units I worked at.”
Asked about her reaction to Child I’s death, she replied: “Shock and frustration at the time because on reflection I felt there was something else going on with [Child I] that we were not getting to the bottom of.
“It was sad because I remember the family and the whole situation was just very sad and frustrating.”
The trial continues.
