Ex-head of nursing at Lucy Letby’s hospital claims she’s harmless and says former nurse ‘deserves an Oscar’ if she lied about murdering infants

The former boss of convicted serial killer Lucy Letby has backed claims she is innocent – saying she ‘deserves an Oscar’ if she lied about murdering babies.

Karen Rees, 62, had weekly meetings with the nurse when she was moved off the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit and into an administrative job in July 2016 after doctors raised concerns about her harming patients.

Mrs Rees admitted she sent supportive text messages to Letby telling her to ‘hang on in there’ and got too friendly with her, but dismissed the idea she was a ‘clever psychopath’.

She told The Sunday Times that Letby was a ‘very frightened young woman’ who was ‘distressed’ by the allegations.

‘I know that they say psychopaths are clever,’ she said. ‘But if she was acting she deserves an Oscar because she was so convincing. She was really hurt when she was told about the consultants’ allegations because she thought they were friends.’

Letby told the jury at her trial at Manchester Crown Court that a ‘gang of four’ paediatricians conspired to blame her for a spike in baby deaths to cover-up for failings on the unit.

But the jury dismissed her version of events and found her guilty of murdering seven babies and seven attempted murders from June 2015 to June 2016. She was later convicted of attempting to murder another baby girl after a retrial. 

Mrs Rees, a career nurse and ward manager who was promoted to head of nursing for urgent care at Countess of Chester Hospital in August 2015, admitted she did not attend Letby’s trials because she was a potential witness.

The former boss of convicted serial killer Lucy Letby (pictured) has backed claims she is innocent, saying she ‘deserves an Oscar’ if she lied about murdering babies

Karen Rees (pictured), 62, had weekly meetings with the nurse when she was moved off the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit after doctors raised concerns about her harming patients

Letby told the jury at her trial at Manchester Crown Court that a ‘gang of four’ paediatricians conspired to blame her for a spike in baby deaths to cover-up for failings on the unit

But she insisted she has always believed she is innocent, adding: ‘I will always recall her saying to me, “You’re the only person, Karen, that hasn’t asked me if I did it”. 

Because I didn’t think she had. I trusted Lucy’s ward manager when she looked me in the eye and said, “She’s [Letby] fantastic and she’s right by the book, she does everything right”.’

Letby, 35, is serving 15 whole-life orders and last year lost two attempts to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal.

Earlier this month a panel of 14 international experts announced they had analysed the medical notes of the 17 babies involved in the case and found ‘no murders’, though the evidence they used to support their claim has been dismissed by some as nothing new.

Letby’s legal team have submitted their report, which found alternative medical explanations for the babies’ deaths, to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body which looks into potential miscarriages of justice, in an attempt to have her convictions quashed.

Mrs Rees said her meetings with Letby after she was moved off the neo-natal unit were ‘harrowing’. She added: ‘She was crying… every time we met her, saying, “Why is this happening to me?” She kept saying to me, “I am not going let them drive me out of the job that I love. I worked hard. I’ve done nothing wrong”. That’s what she kept repeating to me.’

Letby was never allowed to return to the ward and Cheshire Constabulary were called in to investigate in May 2017.

Mrs Rees retired four months before police first arrested Letby in July 2018.