Mother of twins targeted by Letby 'carries sadness of other families'

The mother of twin boys who were attacked by Lucy Letby says she feels guilty and 'carries the sadness of other families' to this day after the killer nurse went onto murder and harm more newborns. 

The neo-natal nurse assaulted Baby E and murdered him with an injection of air, before poisoning his brother, Baby F, with insulin less than 24 hours later.

Baby F survived, but his parents were wrongly told his deterioration was due to an infection, and that Baby E had died of a bowel condition common in premature infants.

Letby went on to murder three more babies and attempt to murder five others until she was removed from the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit in July 2016. 

The boys' mother told the public inquiry into Letby's crimes that she had agreed with advice from a doctor that no post-mortem was necessary for Baby E, but that decision now 'weighed heavily' on her mind because the autopsy may have shown up 'something' to stop Letby sooner.

She said: 'Why was the post-mortem not mandatory? Why was it left to me to make that decision?

'I feel guilty for not requesting that because if that had come back and something would have been on it, there is a lot of babies that could not have been involved in this case and it could have stopped there.

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'That weighs very, very heavily on me and that decision was ultimately ours. That's painful to think about, so I carry our grief but the sadness of the other families because it should never have gone past that point.'

Giving evidence to the hearing, in Liverpool, Baby E and F's mother said doctors should have been more curious about why Baby E, who Letby attacked with a medical instrument, suffered unusual bleeding from his nose and mouth before he died. Baby F's blood tests, which revealed abnormally high levels of insulin, should also have been investigated further, she said.

'That could have been an end to this whole horrendously sad (series) of events,' she said. 'But it wasn't…(because) nothing was done.'

Inquiry chair Lady Justice Thirlwall told her: 'You have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about, nothing. You have nothing to blame yourself for, nothing at all.'

The doctor who advised Baby E's mother that a post-mortem would reveal no new information later apologised to her in the courtroom during the criminal trial.

Baby E and F's mother told the inquiry: 'It was a really emotional moment because it was the first time that anyone from the Countess of Chester has apologised for their part in what happened and I think it was extremely brave to do so.'

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She said she first became aware of any investigation, in February 2017, when the hospital's medical director Ian Harvey wrote to inform her and her husband about an external review of a spike in deaths on the neonatal unit between 2015 and June 2016.

She said: 'I received that letter via a black taxi knocking on my door about 30 minutes before that report was due to go live online on the hospital website. I was absolutely mortified.'

Her only previous contact from the hospital, she said was when they rang twice to mistakenly ask her to return a breast pump, which she used at her son's funeral. In fact, she had already given it back.

She said it was 'hideous' that the hospital had failed to inform parents about the review and claimed that when she tried repeatedly to set up a meeting with Mr Harvey he 'hid behind his secretary'.

Asked about what suspicions she had about Letby, Baby E and F's mother said the nurse's behaviour following her son's death was 'very different' to that of other staff.

She said: 'She was very attentive of me. Whenever she used to see me, she would hug me.

'She was just as upset as me which, reflecting back on it now, is very odd behaviour. She was really emotional. She looked like, every time she spoke to me she was on the verge of tears, very upset.'

Later, the father of Baby G broke down as he recounted how his very premature daughter had beaten the odds to survive her first 100 days of life, only to be left severely brain damaged and unable to walk, see, or feed herself following an attack by Letby.

The nurse overfed the infant with milk, causing Baby G to be violently sick and inhale vomit into her lungs, starving her of oxygen, in the early hours of September 7 2015.

Her father told the hearing he and his wife were kept in the dark about the true cause of their daughter's collapse and also had no idea she had stopped breathing on two other occasions a fortnight later until they attended the criminal trial. 

Letby was convicted of two counts of attempted murder in relation to Baby G, who is now aged nine.

Father G said Letby should have been taken off frontline nursing in June 2015 when suspicions were first raised and the failure to do so had left her free to harm their daughter and murder other babies.

'At the time Letby was left to continue to care for – and as it turned out – harm and even kill babies who were physically vulnerable and unable to speak up for themselves,' he said.

Baby G's father said the Countess never told them they were investigating unexpected collapses and deaths of children on the unit, even though their daughter was still under the hospital's care and, when they learned of the police investigation, in May 2017, he assumed officers were looking into 'malpractice' or a 'useless doctor.'

'It never occurred to me that someone had intentionally harmed our baby,' he added.

Letby, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.

The inquiry is expected to sit until early 2025, with findings published by late autumn of that year.