Nurse praised for her ‘hard work’ hours after alleged attempt to murder baby, court hears

A nurse accused of killing babies received a text message from her boss praising her hard work and composure during a “stressful situation” hours after an alleged attempted murder, a court has heard.

Lucy Letby, 33, is standing trial accused of having murdered seven children and attempting to murder a further ten while working in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.

A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the children involved and identifying parents or witnesses connected with them.

Continuing her evidence in the witness box for a third day, Letby was asked by her lawyer, Ben Myers KC, about an incident on 26 September, 2015 when Child H suffered a severe collapse on the neonatal ward.

Letby denied having any knowledge of why the incident occurred and claimed that she had told her bosses she had asked for help with Child H because of the complex level of care required, but that the unit was struggling with a lack of staff at the time.

Jurors were shown a text message she sent to another nurse saying that the unit was “completely unsafe” with an angry face emoji on 24 September and that she’d raised it with an NHS manager called Yvonne Griffiths.

Asked about the message, Letby said: “I’m stating that there were 18 babies which was over capacity, the unit has capacity for 16 and there was a lot going on. There were some very poorly babies.”

Letby told the jury that Child H had been fitted with three chest drains before she collapsed and that this was something the Countess of Chester was not used to dealing with.

“I had never seen it before,” she said. “The most I had seen before was two. The doctors weren’t familiar either, quite often they would have to look things up.”

The court heard that Child H suffered a “profound desaturation” at around 3am on 26 September before recovering.

Prosecutors say there is no obvious explanation for the sudden collapse and allege Letby was responsible.

Letby denied having anything to do with the collapse and jurors were shown a text message she later received from Ms Griffiths, which read: “I just wanted to congratulate you for your hard work these last few nights.

“You composed yourself very well during a stressful situation. It’s nice to see your confidence growing as you advance through your career. x”

Letby forwarded this message to a colleague, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and wrote: “What do I say to that?”

Letby sent other messages to this colleague highlighting the “lack of support” she felt she had been given over caring for Child H.

“By this time [Child H] had a lot of chest drains in which wasn’t something I was overly familiar with,” she said.

“I was caring for [Child H] and two other babies and I had said ‘I don’t think I want to care for [Child H] on my own’.”

Letby’s defence barrister said: “You didn’t want to care for [Child H] on your own? But the prosecution say you wanted to kill her?”

“No,” Letby replied.

Letby denies 22 charges in total and the trial, which has now lasted around seven months, continues.