Attention seeking Lucy Letby texted lies to her friends about father collapsing when his baby died, mother of murdered boy tells inquiry
A mother whose son was the first baby boy murdered by Lucy Letby has said the ‘attention seeking’ nurse lied in text messages she sent to colleagues about her husbands grief.
A mother whose son was the first baby boy murdered by Lucy Letby has said the ‘attention seeking’ nurse lied in text messages she sent to colleagues about her husbands grief.
The parent of Baby A and B said Letby had fabricated a story to her friends about the father collapsing on the floor after the first child was taken for a post-mortem.
Counsel to the inquiry Rachel Langdale KC asked: ‘You remember from the criminal trial learning that Letby had texted her friends stating that Father A and B had collapsed to the floor when she had taken Child A for the post-mortem. Was that true, had that happened?’
The mother replied: ‘No, its not true. There were several text messages that came out through the trial that were lies and it was, to me, it was attention seeking.’
She called for a psychological screening process to assess the mental state of any healthcare staff treating vulnerable patients, saying those texts were a ‘red flag.’
‘If somebody had been checking in with her (Letby) and assessing her, maybe that would have come up sooner,’ she said.
Lucy Letby (pictured) is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims
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The mother of Baby A and B told the inquiry today that Letby had texted lies to her friends about her husband collapsing when her daughter died
Chair of the inquiry Lady Justice Thirlwall at Liverpool Town Hall on September 9
It comes after a judge praised the determined mother of a baby girl murdered by Lucy Letby for never giving up trying to find out why her daughter died.
Lady Justice Thirlwall told the sobbing woman she had done everything for her child, who was the third baby murdered by the neo-natal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital in two weeks in June 2015.
During almost three hours of emotional testimony, the mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, described how she contemplated suicide and thought she was losing her mind because nothing made sense about her newborns sudden collapse and death.
She fought to access her daughters medical notes, rejected doctors explanations for her cause of death and wrote to the coroner demanding an inquest - so determined was she to get to the bottom of what happened to her daughter.
She even enlisted the help of a solicitor and suggested police be called in, but was initially told it was not a criminal matter.
Lady Justice Thirlwall, who is heading an inquiry into Letbys crimes at Liverpool Town Hall, told the sobbing mother: When all this began you looked for answers and explanations about what happened to your daughter.
At great personal cost you have never given up, and your evidence to the inquiry leaves everyone listening in no doubt of your determination and persistence on behalf of your daughter and for you and your husband.
You have done everything you could have done. I do know just how hard this process has been for you and your husband and I would like to thank you both for all you have done for the inquiry.
The hearing was told that the couples baby, known as Baby D, was born three weeks early, weighing 6lbs 14oz.
She was being treated on the unit for an infection when Letby attacked her three times over the course of a single night shift, finally killing her with an injection of air.
Baby Ds mother said she never had a conversation with Letby, but described feeling very uneasy in her presence and that she stood out as being odd.
Lady Justice Thirlwall, pictured last Monday, is chairing the inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall
A court artists sketch of Lucy Letby giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court on July 24
On the night her daughter died, she said she remembered Letby doing nothing useful as medics fought desperately to save her, adding: She was just looking at us crumbling and crying.
She also described how the doctor trying to revive her daughter had a phone to his ear while he was performing CPR and she later found out that staff had mistakenly believed it was Baby B who had collapsed, not Baby D, and her mother had been called in error.
Letby had attacked twins Baby A and Baby B a week earlier, killing Baby A.
Baby Ds mother said she now believed this was not a mistake but suggested it had been done maliciously by Letby.
After her daughter died, Baby Ds mother said things just didnt add up and she became obsessed with finding out the truth.
She said doctors had told them Baby D was responding to antibiotics and getting better, so when her cause of death came back as due to an overwhelming infection she refused to accept it was correct.
Lady Justice Thirlwall at Liverpool Town Hall on Monday last week ahead of the hearings
Nothing made sense, so to try and get myself together, it was impossible, so psychologically hard, she said.
I know my husband was worried because I was asking too many questions, I was requesting notes, I was talking about investigating and going to the police. I thought maybe I was losing my mind and I didnt think people understood why I was pushing.
I just didnt know if what I was doing was right but I kept thinking, this is my daughters voice, I cant give up here, so I will carry on even if I am on my own.
Any energy and strength I had was going into pushing, reading the notes, getting clued up and everything else was getting drained in my emotions, I was just losing myself, I was no longer a friend, or a daughter or a wife, that was my sacrifice.
She accused the hospital of deliberately hiding information from the coroner and failing to share information about their reviews and investigations into Baby Ds death.
Body worn camera footage from Cheshire Constabulary of the arrest of Lucy Letby in 2018
It was clear they were not being open and honest and they were trying to cover something up, she said.
The inquiry has heard that copies of a report carried out by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health that were eventually sent to parents, in April 2017, but sections relating to Letby had been removed.
Baby Ds mother said that, if she had known that suspicions about a member of staff had been raised, she would have gone to the police herself.
I would have gone to the police, regardless of what anyone advised, she said.
When I first mentioned involving the police everyone thought, this is bonkers, its not criminal, theres nothing more to it. Its sad, but your baby passed because she was poorly.
If I had known everything, I would have gone myself.
The investigation at Liverpool Town Hall (pictured last week) is examining how Letby was able to attack babies on the Countess and Chester Hospitals neo-natal unit in 2015 and 2016
Eventually, a police investigation was launched, in May 2017, but Baby Ds mother said she had no clue a nurse was under suspicion until Letby was arrested a year later, in July 2018, almost three years after her daughters death.
She said it was only during the trials that she and her husband finally began to understand exactly what happened to their daughter and for that they, and the families of all Letbys victims, were owed an apology from the Countess.
If I wasnt failed in the first place by the Countess, my daughter wouldnt have ended up in intensive care, I wouldnt have ended up poorly and destroyed, and she wouldnt have been in a place where someone was preying on babies.
As a strict minimum they owe us an apology, the babies an apology and all the families that have suffered, apologies.
