Convicted Baby-Killing Nurse Lucy Letby’s Co-Workers Were Forced to Apologize For Sounding Alarm on Her String of Infant Deaths, Report Finds

Years before British nurse Lucy Letby was convicted this month of causing the deaths of seven infants and attempting to kill six more, the chief executive of the hospital where she worked ordered senior doctors to apologize to her for speculating she was involved in the incidents, according to a report. 

According to The Guardian, hospital executives also did not contact the police for fear the news would damage the hospital’s reputation and make the neonatal section inoperable by turning it into a "crime scene." 

The investigation by the paper found that senior doctors warned hospital executives “for months” about Letby’s alleged involvement in the death of premature babies at the Countess of Chester hospital.

The killings happened in 2015 and Letby was expelled from the hospital in June of 2016, nearly a year after doctors informed hospital executives of their suspicions. Letby was officially removed from the hospital after hospital executives ordered a formal review of the infant deaths. 

However, after two formal reviews, Letby was welcomed back to work at the hospital in 2017. Though she was welcome, Letby did not actually return to the neonatal ward, and a police investigation began four months later.

Tony Chambers, one of the aforementioned hospital executives, reportedly told senior doctors to write letters apologizing to Letby for accusing her of misconduct after the reviews seemingly absolved Letby of any wrongdoing. 

The Guardian found that neither review actually examined whether Letby or any other staff members played a role in the deaths. The reviews both recommended that the multiple deaths be investigated further. 

One review conducted by the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health probed into the operations of the neonatal unit during the period when more babies died. The review concluded with recommendations for increased staffing and other improvements. 

The other review did not yield any suspicious activity in the baby’s deaths.

During the 10-month-long trial involving the hospital, the babies’ parents and Letby, it was disclosed that Letby was on duty during three of the unexplained infant deaths and a life-threatening collapse over two weeks in June 2015. The number of deaths was alarming doctors thought because this was as many babies as would usually die throughout a whole year on the unit. 

According to The Guardian's review of internal documents and interviews with two pediatricians, Chambers spoke in 2017 with Letby and her father — who threatened to refer the doctors who raised suspicion over Letby to the General Medical Council  —  and afterwards revealed he believed Letby was innocent.

“To be told what the reviews showed without having seen them at all was a bit surprising, and then to be told we were to draw a line under the matter and that was it, and then to be instructed to send a letter of apology to Lucy Letby was just flabbergasting,” Dr. John Gibbs, one of the pediatricians, told the Guardian. 

Soon after, Gibbs said doctors began to “think the unthinkable” over what Letby had done, adding, “I don’t think the management could accept that.” 

The Manchester Crown Court in northern England found Letby guilty of murdering the seven infants and attempting to kill six more last Friday. Letby harmed the children by injecting air into their bloodstreams and stomachs, physically assaulting them, poisoning them with insulin and overfeeding them with milk. 

According to CNN, police found a plethora of notes while searching Letby’s house. One said “I am evil I did this." 

Police found another note in Letby’s handwriting that read "I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them." 

Letby will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Aug. 21.