Lucy Letby: the full story of the serial killer nurse

many words will be used to describe the crimes of Lucy letby and there is a question that will also be asked many times why would she why would a nurse whose job it was to care for babies murder and harm them in the hospital where she worked there is a reality I think that we may never really know the answer to that I was in court as Lucy letby gave evidence she didn't give us an answer she said all of this was a conspiracy against her that she did nothing wrong but there are other questions where I think there will increasingly be a demand for answers like how is she able to do this and should she have been stopped sooner this is the morning of Lucy letby's arrest yeah hello yes yeah thank you the smile's gone and she's in handcuffs a few minutes later a nurse who murdered babies Lucy letby has always denied and never explained just gonna put you in the back seat over here now guilty of using her job to kill again and again see in that formula I'll move that seat forward a bit yeah I've just had knee surgery all right okay you see that b was entrusted to protect some of the most vulnerable babies in her hands innocuous substances like air milk or medication like insulin would become lethal she perverted her learning and weaponized her craft to inflict harm grief and death how would you describe the crimes of Lucy leppy horrible horrific and evil we're talking about tiny babies in a setting where they should have been really safe that setting was the neonatal unit where Lucy let me worked her victims with a very definition of defenseless I said oh my God what happened and the doctor was giving compressions to Baby M M I was just praying to God saying what has happened to my child I saw doctors around the trolley and they're just pumping his heart like like a rag doll really the image that I saw was just horrendous that image I'll never forget because it's on the brain their words have been re-voiced because like all the families in this case a court order gives these parents anonymity they're twin boys known as babies l and m were just a day old and Lucy letby tried to kill them they both survived but it took almost 30 minutes to restart baby M's heart experts say the crash was likely caused by air being injected into his bloodstream his brother was poisoned with insulin their parents weren't told that for two years we didn't know anything even afterwards until the police came knocking she was very cool calm calculated and a criminal minded lady just an evil person if they'd acted upon the initial suspicions it would have prevented multiple deaths really there's no way she should have been able to get away with it for so long one of those raising concerns at the hospital was Dr John Gibbs we pediatricians were certainly concerned that someone and suspicion fell on Lucy letby could have been harming and perhaps killing patients on the unit if they just listened to us Hospital pediatricians I think the police would have been called in a lot earlier before he retired Dr Gibbs worked with Lucy letby they're next to each other in a fundraising photo from 2015. that same year suspicions began when the neonatal death rate doubled and doctors noticed a common factor Lucy letby Hospital managers were told and meetings were held but until the following summer the nurse was still working on the neonatal unit those events in the summer of 2016 in particular two deaths on consecutive days what was it like being there it was a worrying time because suspicions and concerns have been growing and then in June 2016 there were several deaths in very quick succession we weren't expecting them to go home and suddenly one after another they died and that really worried us and at that point we felt something drastic had to be done to protect the babies on the unit those events have been described as a Tipping Point the two babies who died one day after another were identical triplets and Dr Gibbs and the other Consultants could find no medical reason for what happened so after months raising their concerns they now insisted on Lucy let these removal from the neonatal unit she was shifted into an office job in the patient's safety department but 11 more months went by before Hospital managers called in the police during those months senior managers repeatedly tried to move Lucy letby back to the neonatal unit Dr Gibbs and the other pediatricians kept refusing and saying police should be involved why did it then take so long for the police to be called in well I think there was resistance on the Senior Management side to involving the police but I don't know quite why and really the senior managers ought to be asked why wait to tell police is just one of the serious questions but as of yet the Countess of Chester Hospital has not given answers instead a video statement was recorded after the verdicts we are extremely sorry that these crimes were committed at our hospital since Lucy letby worked at our Hospital we have made significant changes to our services and I want to provide reassurance to every patient they may access our services that they can have confidence in the care that they will receive finally and most importantly our thoughts are with all the families and loved ones at this very difficult time thank you Doctor school I have to ask why do Hospital managers try to stop Lucy Levy from being investigated once police were told their investigation became a multiple murder inquiry when police arrested Lucy let me and searched her home they found hospital records stored in shopping bags under her bed some included the names of babies she killed it's thought she kept them as a kind of trophy on a phone They seized there were photos of the handwritten message in a card the nurse sent to the family of a baby girl she'd murdered she signed it lots of love Lucy and in her diary along with dates for salsa dancing classes there were initials of some of her victims written on the days when they died tucked inside was a Post-It note filled with words and phrases including I am evil I did this there was no confession to police though they told me that there would be a lot more Destiny I think do you have any concerns that there was a rise in the mortality rate yes okay so tell me about that what concerns did you I think we don't just notice as a team in general this was a nice competition competitious years after Lucy letby's Long trial she refused to be in court at the end the verdicts do though give the parents of her victims answers to some of their questions though not all definitely a public inquiry the higher management they need to be held accountable the doctors raised their concerns and they didn't act upon them they dismissed them it's hard to put into words just how it could have gone on so long why it went on so long we have to wait for the hospital to answer those questions but it could have been stopped that's the fact in a 12-month period Lucy letby murdered seven babies and tried to murder another six some who survived have been left with permanent brain injuries we now know police are checking more medical records more families have been told what happened to their child is being looked into the question the detective leading the investigation is trying to answer did Lucy let me kill or harm more children this investigation is ongoing for you isn't it yes she said yes it is you know we've got to look at it and think right okay what would be the right thing to do and that is to investigate all of the time period that Lucy letby's have been employed as a nurse both at the Countess and whilst on placement of the Liverpool women's hospital so we're looking currently at every admission of a neonatal infant during that period that must be thousands of babies it's over 4 000 babies it's unfair at this point to speculate on where that will go six years after police began investigating the deaths of babies at this Hospital there are still unknowns who is Lucy letby remains easier to answer than why she did what she did I would describe her as a person as being beige she was unremarkable as a nurse she had a normal friendship group a family she had a normal social life everything you would expect somebody in their 20s to do she was operating in plain sight because she was so normal I think it's so hard to Fathom how somebody in such a position of trust could commit these offenses the question of why is almost a heart it's too difficult to to even there isn't anything that's reasonable there is no reasonable explanation and I don't think I'll ever understand or accept why this trial is believed to have been the longest murder trial in British legal history the jury deliberated for more than 100 hours and in fact the verdicts have been coming back over a number of days now we couldn't report them because of restrictions imposed by the judge until the final verdicts reached by this jury had been returned and I was watching Lucy letby for any reaction as those verdicts came back as some were read out she cried on another occasion she was looking down there seemed to be no emotion and then after that she started to refuse to come to court we heard from one of the parents in my report there saying that there does need to be a public inquiry an inquiry has been announced today but not a public inquiry meaning it wouldn't have the same legal Powers it couldn't compel witnesses to give evidence and some do see that as a problem in terms of both answers and accountability Claire Fallon well by the time police were called in by the hospital senior doctors had been raising concerns for well over a year and there had been several reviews into what they were calling a cluster of deaths by the end of June 2015 an association between Lucy lepney and the death of three babies had been identified soon after that link was raised in a meeting with a hospital executive in February 2016 a specialist from another hospital was brought in to carry out a review the deaths of two identical triplets in June 2016 were described as exceptional and unexplained when investigated internally Lucy letby was the common factor again she was moved to a desk job and the neonatal unit was downgraded meaning they no longer cared for the most at-risk babies the hospital ordered two more independent reviews before finally police were asked to investigate in May 2017. well ministers have ordered an independent inquiry into the circumstances behind let these crimes including the way concerns were raised by Hospital staff were handled this is one of the really shocking things um that happened is as you say that doctors repeatedly raise their concerns and that didn't lead to the action being taken that you would have expected this is one of the things that clearly the inquiry I think should look into well the city of Chester MP Samantha Dixon joins me now each one of these deaths was treated as a tragedy at the time and they would have had a terrible impact at the time that they happened what do you think will now be the impact as the community realizes that these weren't just tragedies these were deliberate murders from a serial killer I think they would share the grief of the families that are involved I think the the decision to harm a child is one of the most deprived braved acts that somebody can commit and to actually kill a child is unimaginable and I think that most people in this city will actually be standing alongside these family in their grief and their sorrow and I'm sure that will be Nationwide but what people have also discovered today is the background to this and what happened as doctors tried to raise the alarm with the hospital management what do you make of what you've heard today and what do you think the people who are supposed to be served by that hospital will think well as soon as the verdicts came in this afternoon I wrote to the Secretary of State Steve Barkley and requested a full independent and public inquiry into the uh the circumstances around uh letby's crimes I'm pleased that he's he's replied to me he's issued a statement saying that there will be an inquire an inquiry and that it will be quick and it will be flexible I do think however that wider questions have emerged today from staff who were involved at the time about the response of the organization that need to be addressed and I think a full public inquiry is the way to do that so you want this inquiry to be upgraded to you to a statutory public inquiry with the ability to compel witnesses to come forward and to give evidence on oath I think everybody needs the answers and I think if that's the way forward then that's what we'll need I have written back to the health secretary to ask him why the decision has been taken to make it a non-statry inquiry and I wait to hear what the rationale is behind that decision but I really do feel that the community here in Chester and more widely across the country want to hear answers and want to understand why these circumstances were allowed to to take place do you think that statement today and the failure to answer any questions by the hospital was acceptable was it adequate I think that there are wider questions I think an inquiry is the way to deal with them I think that there are many questions that have Arisen as the aftermath of the verdict has come forward I think it needs to be dealt with quickly and I think that the organization is going to have a lot of answers to to provide to The Wider community and actually the NHS as a whole needs to consider its response to these these penis crimes because the trouble is of course there have been um killers in hospitals before in the Health Service Port before and there have been inquiries and each case is slightly different and so the actions after those inquiries perhaps haven't quite caught the next one I mean how do you think you can actually take the steps needed now after this particularly shocking sets of crimes to to tackle this and to stop it happening again do you think that's possible I hope so I mean I really do for the community that that I represent who are served by this local hospital I think anybody living in this city living in this wider Community needs to know that this hospital is a safe place for them to be treated in and I think that a full public inquiry that's held independently can establish that for the residents that I represent and just finally do you have confidence in that hospital right now do you think people can be confident in going there and feeling safe I think that the the clinical staff who acted in the way that they did and have described how they took forward the suspicions that they had should give people confidence that there are staff in that hospital working hard and in the best interests of the patients that they serve day in day out Samantha Dixon thank you very much Matt well speaking outside court today Cheshire Constable paid tribute to the exceptional strength shown by families during the investigation and read a statement on their behalf this has been a long and emotional Journey for all of the families involved in this case I speak on behalf of the entire prosecution team when I say that all of their babies will forever be in our hearts I would like to thank all of the families in this case for their exceptional resilience and strength throughout this entire investigation the composure and their dignity during this trial has been truly overwhelming I cannot begin to imagine how the families in this case feel today I just hope that the today's verdicts bring all of them some peace of mind for the future and that we have answered some of the questions that they were looking for words cannot effectively explain how we are feeling at this moment in time we are quite simply stunned to lose a baby is a heartbreaking experience but no parent has ever had to go through to lose a baby or to have a baby harmed in these particular circumstances is unimaginable over the past seven to eight years we've had to go through a long torturous and emotional Journey from losing our precious newborns and grieving their loss seeing our children who survived some of whom still suffering today to being told years later that their death or collapse might be suspicious nothing can prepare you for that news today justice has been served and a nurse who should have been caring for our babies has been found guilty of harming them for this Justice will not take away from the extreme hurt anger and distress that we've all had to experience some families did not receive the verdict that they expected and therefore it is a Bittersweet result we are heartbroken devastated angry and feel numb we may never truly know why this happened

Channel: Channel 4 News

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Keywords: lucy letby, lucy, letby, lucy letby nurse, who is lucy letby, lucy letby background, lucy letby parents, lucy letby who is she, the trial of lucy letby, lucy letby trial, chester, guilty, nurse

Id: In0WVQ7lswU

Length: 20min 34sec (1234 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 18 2023