13 babies died in Lucy Letby’s neonatal unit during killer nurse’s year-long spree as cops ready to probe
LUCY LETBY’S neonatal unit is facing a new police probe after it was revealed that 13 babies died there during her year-long killing spree.
The twisted nurse, 33, was charged with seven murders — but now it has emerged she was on duty at the time of another six deaths at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
It raises suggestions police will link more deaths to Letby as they continue to investigate whether she harmed any other infants.
These deaths, according to the BBC’s Panorama on Friday night, were not included in the trial.
And two babies died while she was on placement at Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
The programme reported the BBC discovered 13 babies died during Letby’s last year on the neonatal unit — and she was on duty at the time of all of them.
It is not clear why detectives had not already looked into the other deaths but police insisted after Letby’s conviction on Friday they would investigate her entire career.
Letby learned about her favourite method of murder — air bubbles in the bloodstream — on a training course just weeks before killing her first tiny victim in June 2015.
Detectives believe she grew in confidence and got better at killing because she carried out her attacks under the noses of her colleagues for another 12 months.
The first five murders were between June and October 2015 and the final two in June 2016.
But police are likely to examine the six other deaths on the NHS ward during that time.
Just two or three of the hundreds of babies that passed through Letby’s neonatal unit would die in a typical year.
Cheshire Police confirmed their inquiries were ongoing and further charges could follow.
As Letby faces life behind bars, officers are reviewing thousands of medical files and some parents have already come forward with suspicions or been contacted by police.
Det Supt Paul Hughes, who brought Letby to justice, said: “We have informed a number of parents we are investigating their child and they are being supported.”
He said they were reviewing the care of all 4,000 babies admitted to the neonatal units of the Countess and to Liverpool Women’s hospital, where Letby completed two periods of training in 2012 and 2015 during her five-year career.
Senior officers will question Letby in prison if further evidence is found.
The six-year investigation has already cost millions of pounds but the force said money would not be a barrier to uncovering her crimes.
Meanwhile, the parents of a baby who nearly died on Letby’s ward last night said they feared she tried to kill their daughter — making her one of her first victims.
Vicky Whitfield, 43, claims she saw Letby standing by newborn Felicity’s cot moments before she suffered a lung collapse in November 2013.
She survived only because doctors at a second hospital revived her using a procedure that had been tried twice without success at the Countess.
But Vicky and her husband, Mike, claimed another baby also suffered a catastrophic collapse and died after Letby was reassigned to take care of him.
The couple, of Blacon in Chester, have called on police to widen their investigation to include other suspicious deaths and near-fatal collapses of babies.
Letby began working at the Countess neonatal unit in 2011.
She was one of the nurses placed in charge of the care of Felicity, who was born prematurely and with pneumonia.
Vicky told The Times that instinct made her check on her daughter, now nine, in the early hours of the morning — and felt it might have saved her life.
She said: “I don’t know what it was, call it mother’s instinct. I felt I needed to go down to the neonatal unit.
“I walked in — everything seemed quite calm.
“Lucy Letby was by the cot and then she walked out into the other room. I went to have a look at Felicity and within minutes all hell broke loose.”
Mike claimed he had been sent home by a nurse — believed to be Letby — for looking tired.
He then received a phone call telling him his daughter was in a grave condition.
Medical staff were even urging the couple to get Felicity baptised if they wanted because she was unlikely to survive.
They then suggested a last-ditch transfer to Arrowe Park Hospital, a large, acute unit on Merseyside with experience in treating seriously ill newborns, where her condition improved.
He claimed Letby, a student nurse at the time, was reassigned to a twin boy who shortly after suffered a fatal collapse.
It raises serious questions as to when the killer nurse first began harming babies in her care and how many other victims there could be.
And it comes as a heartbroken mum yesterday also told how she believed Letby was “honing her technique” when her newborn son, Sam, collapsed while under her care in March 2014.
He was resuscitated by doctors at the time but died later.
The mum, known only by her first name Sarah, now believes Letby tried to kill her son, who collapsed with an unusual rash.
A reddish-brown rash was one of the most significant identifying features in Letby’s attacks.
Sarah told the Daily Telegraph: “Did she try something? Why did he collapse?
“Was it an early attempt to kill? Honing her technique? It’s hard to think about.
“Sam wasn’t well anyway, so was his death just what happened?”
Police investigated her son’s death following Letby’s arrest but concluded she was not responsible.
An inquest heard he died less than four days after his birth after doctors mistakenly put a breathing tube into his gullet when it should have gone into his trachea.
SICK MESSAGE IN MONSTER’S BEDROOM
PHOTOS inside serial killer Lucy Letby’s home reveal she hung inspirational quotes on her bedroom wall.
Inside the house — where Letby also kept ‘trophies’ from her murders — had a print referring to Rihanna’s 2012 anthem Diamonds, with the quote: “Shine bright like a diamond.”
Another artwork read: “Leave sparkles wherever you go.”