Mother of child who Lucy Letby ‘tried to kill’ breaks down in tears
The mother of a premature baby girl today described making the ‘hardest decision of her life’ to turn off her daughter’s life support and ‘let her go’ – three days after Lucy Letby allegedly tried to murder her.
The child, known as Baby K, had been born weighing just 1lbs 8oz, 15 weeks early at the Countess of Chester Hospital when her mother went into labour unexpectedly early, in February 2016.
By then, Manchester Crown Court heard, the former neo-natal nurse had already murdered five babies – three boys and two girls – and would go on to murder two more boys from a set of triplets a few months later.
The prosecution allege Letby, 34, was caught ‘virtually red-handed’ trying to murder Baby K by dislodging her breathing tube less than two hours after she was born.
They say a senior doctor spotted Letby alone with tot and ‘doing nothing’ to help as she collapsed in the early hours of a nightshift, when the nurse designated to care for her was away, updating her parents on her condition.
Letby denies attempted murder and not been charged in connection with baby K’s subsequent death at a more specialist hospital, where she was moved around 12 hours after her birth.
Lucy Letby, 34, was convicted in August last year of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six other infants
The former nurse is now on trial at Manchester Crown Court accused of the attempted murder of a baby girl, known as Child K, in February 2016
Lucy Letby is pictured in a court artist sketch during her re-trial at Manchester Crown Court
In a moving statement, which was read to the jury on the second day of the re-trial, Baby K’s mother said: ‘As we walked into the room I could see the monitors and sats readings were low. I knew straight away things weren’t great.
‘The doctor confirmed the worst. I asked if it was just a waiting game now or if she was going to get better. We had a long conversation and she said what happens next was entirely our decision.
‘I remember saying to the doctor that she had been poked and prodded from the moment she was born, her tiny, little, delicate body had swollen up so much I didn’t want her to be suffering any more.
‘We didn’t want to be informed that we’d lost our little girl by alarms on the machines going off, we didn’t want to prolong things anymore.
‘We made the decision to switch off the machines and let her go. It was by far the hardest decision of my life.
‘One of the staff showed us to a family room where it was peaceful and quiet. Our daughter was wrapped in a blanket and was wearing a little hat. Our daughter was in my husband’s arms when she took her last breath and silently passed away.’
Baby K’s mother dabbed her eyes with a tissue as the statement was read to the jury. She and her husband are present in the public gallery, sitting just yards from Letby, who is in the glass-panelled dock, flanked by three security guards.
She committed the murders and attempted murders between June 2015 and June 2016 at the Countess of Chester Hospital, where she worked
The jury was told that, after being ‘caught virtually red-handed’ by senior paediatrician Dr Ravi Jayaram, Letby tampered with Baby K’s breathing tube twice more over the next three hours on the same shift to cover her tracks and make it appear the child was prone to collapse.
Although Baby K was in the neo-natal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital for less than 12 hours and Letby never knew her first name, she searched for her parents on Facebook more than two years later, the court heard.
Letby, formally of Hereford, denies attempted murder.
Her barrister, Ben Myers KC, told the jury she can’t remember the night Baby K was born but she denies dislodging her breathing tube or causing her harm.
Neither the baby or her parents can be named for legal reasons.
The trial, expected to last around four weeks, continues.
