Lucy Letby denies ‘on the lookout for grief’, courtroom hears
Killer nurse Lucy Letby yesterday denied ‘looking for grief’ by searching for the parents of babies she murdered on Facebook years after their deaths.
The 34-year-old rejected a claim that she had a fascination with the parents and protested her innocence, insisting: ‘I am not guilty of what I’ve been found guilty of.’
She is accused of the attempted murder of a very premature baby girl, known as Baby K, while working a night shift at the Countess of Chester Hospital in February 2016. The prosecution says she deliberately dislodged Baby K’s breathing tube less than two hours after she was born 15 weeks early, weighing just 1lb 8oz.
Last August Letby was found guilty of the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six more, but a verdict on the allegation concerning Baby K could not be reached and a retrial was ordered. Yesterday she told the jury at Manchester Crown Court that she ‘wasn’t sure’ why she had looked up Baby K’s surname two years and two months after she allegedly tried to kill her.
Letby agreed she ‘habitually’ searched for the parents of the 13 children she has been convicted of murdering and harming but insisted she had also looked at ‘many other parents’ and she was ‘not the sort of person that killed babies’. Nick Johnson KC, prosecuting, pointed out that many of the searches were late at night.
Court drawing of Lucy Letby on Monday June 24 2024. Letby rejected a claim that she had a fascination with the parents and protested her innocence, insisting: ‘I am not guilty of what I’ve been found guilty of’
Last August Letby was found guilty of the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six more, but a verdict on the allegation concerning Baby K could not be reached and a retrial was ordered
He asked Letby: ‘Do you have trouble sleeping?’ She replied: ‘I was on my phone at various points at night. I don’t know if I was working. I went on my phone day and night. I also searched for other parents as well.’ Mr Johnson said: ‘What was your fascination with the parents of children who had died or had been seriously injured?’ Letby said: ‘It was not a fascination. I regularly looked up a lot of parents.’
Mr Johnson took Letby through the medical notes of another baby boy who she helped care for the night before the alleged attack on Baby K. They referred to an issue with his breathing tube and a catheter that had snapped from its hub.
Mr Johnson asked: ‘Was that done by you?’ ‘No,’ said Letby.
The court previously heard senior consultant Dr Ravi Jayaram caught Letby ‘virtually red-handed’ standing over baby K’s incubator ‘doing nothing’ as her oxygen levels dropped dangerously low around 3.50am.
But Letby, who appeared calm and confident while giving her evidence, said she did not accept she was even in the intensive care nursery when Baby K collapsed.
The youngster was transferred to a specialist hospital later that afternoon but died aged four days. The prosecution does not allege Letby caused her death.
Letby, formerly of Hereford, denies a single count of attempted murder. The baby cannot be named for legal reasons.
The case continues.
