UK - Nurse Lucy Letby, Faces 22 Charges - 7 Murder/15 Attempted Murder of Babies #18

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Next week the court will sit on Tuesday and Thursday; the week after that, on 11 and 12 of May; the week after that, for the full five days.

Recap: Lucy Letby trial, Thursday, April 27

The trial of Lucy Letby, who denies murdering seven babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit and attempting to murder 10 more, is…

www.chesterstandard.co.uk

 

[bastien]

So she wrote about air embolism on an assessment form ..and 8 days later her first alleged victim was allegedly injected with air

Surely you would expect any correctly trained member of staff to know this, though? In isolation, I don't see it as particularly damning.

 

[bastien]

3:08pm

A 'heat map' of total staffing presence says Letby was present for all 24 events.

The next highest is consultant Dr John Gibbs, present at 10 events. Five nursing staff, and one doctor, were each present for seven of the events.

The 'heat map' shows which of the other medical staff were present for six, five, four, three, two and one of the events.

This seems very incriminating. However, I'd be interested to see how the heat map would look for all incidents and 'near misses' on the unit and not just these specific 24, and also normalised against hours worked by each staff member. I would be surprised if the defence doesn't try to show something along those lines.

 

[Marantz4250b]

If I were innocent and asked if I killed Baby *, I would reply "no, of course not, I couldnt hurt a baby, I would never do anything like that, oh god, I cant believe anyone would think I could, those poor babies etc...". Throughout her interviews, she seems to reply to triggering questions with "no"

Maybe we would all behave differently in that situation, but I find her responses quite nonchalent and cavalier. Shes too calm and controlled.

(Jmo)

I would too hut after repeated questioning, which she was experiencing, it would be exceptionally weird to give long answers like that.

Those answers demonstrate shock, bewilderment, etc. That will stop applying after you've been asked multiple times. Continuing in that vein will look decidedly weird a d like you were acting.

 

[Tortoise]

Next week the court will sit on Tuesday and Thursday; the week after that, on 11 and 12 of May; the week after that, for the full five days.

Recap: Lucy Letby trial, Thursday, April 27

The trial of Lucy Letby, who denies murdering seven babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit and attempting to murder 10 more, is…

www.chesterstandard.co.uk

Tuesday and Friday next week

 

[Tortoise]

This seems very incriminating. However, I'd be interested to see how the heat map would look for all incidents and 'near misses' on the unit and not just these specific 24, and also normalised against hours worked by each staff member. I would be surprised if the defence doesn't try to show something along those lines.

other events on the unit were not deemed suspicious, or unexpected, by the expert review, so there's no comparison to be made.

 

[Popcorn80]

I like the fact they have highlighted how she was a ‘good nurse’ this isn’t someone who made errors because they didn’t understand what they were doing.
IMO the prosecution is showing, she made a clear choice to do harm.

 

[Marantz4250b]

She said she "didn't know how to dispose of them" and no-one else had seen them.'

Said no nurse ever when considering confidential patient information. Seriously this is just messed up.
JMO

It sounds as though ".......didn't know how to dispose of them...." comment actually means "....I psychologically couldn't stop accumulating them and couldn't get rid of them for the same reason....", to me.

Having those sorts of issues doesn't make someone a murderer, thoigh.

All in my totally inexpert opinion, obvs.

 

[Tortoise]

[...]

The neonatal nurse was asked to explain a sentence that read: 'KILL MYSELF RIGHT NOW, OVERWHELMING FEAR AND PANIC'.

She told the interviewing officer: 'I just felt that it was all…it was all happening out of my control'.

[...]

'I didn't think they'd find that I'd been incompetent, but I was worried that they might try and assume that I had been just because I was there for all of these babies'.

[...]

Letby felt that by being taken away from the NNU she was 'having to pay for something that I didn't do'.

She was asked what she meant by the note: 'I'LL NEVER HAVE CHILDREN OR MARRY I'LL NEVER KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO HAVE A FAMILY'.

She replied: 'Just that I'd never meet anybody and therefore I'd never have a family…Because nobody would want to.

[...]

The interview then deals with a note that read: 'I DID THIS, WHY ME?'

An officer asks: 'Did what?'

Letby replies: 'Well, did something that led to these babies collapsing and dying…I felt that it was me – not intentionally – but through that situation, through the redeployment'.

[...]

Towards the end of her final police interview, on November 10, 2020, Letby was asked: 'Lucy, are you responsible for the deaths of these babies?'

'No,' she replied.

A few minutes later an officer asks how she is feeling. 'I'm just a bit exhausted now,' she said.

It would be her last comment on the investigation ahead of her trial.

[...]

Lucy Letby said 'everything got on top of me', baby murder trial hears

Neonatal nurse Lucy Letby told police she thought of committing suicide after being taken off the unit where she is alleged to have murdered seven babies.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Jazmania]

It sounds as though ".......didn't know how to dispose of them...." comment actually means "....I psychologically couldn't stop accumulating them and couldn't get rid of them for the same reason....", to me.

Having those sorts of issues doesn't make someone a murderer, thoigh.

All in my totally inexpert opinion, obvs.

No, having those issues doesn't make someone a murderer. But how likely is it that the one person who was there for each collapse and death also had a psychological compunction to collect and store personal information about the babies in her care? And then for some reason would try to deny that she had such a compunction.

 

[Marantz4250b]

2:40pm

The facts are that Letby was interviewed in police custody in Blacon, Chester, over a series of 13 interviews in July 3-5, 2018.
Further interviews, a total of 14, were held in June 10-12, 2019.
A further three interviews were held in November 10-11, 2020.
The interviews were fully recorded with Letby having legal representation throughout.

Recap: Lucy Letby trial, Thursday, April 27

The trial of Lucy Letby, who denies murdering seven babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit and attempting to murder 10 more, is…

www.chesterstandard.co.uk

Thirty interviews!!!!

 

[bbsaz]

The explanation that she will never have kids, because she will never meet anyone, I find interesting.

Why is she thinking she will never meet anyone? To me, it demonstrates that she was aware this might lead to prison. But why would your mind go there if we are only dealing with competency issues? Unless she knows more of course (imo)

 

[esther43]

Rather interesting that the defence wanted to re-question the unit manager, but didn't call back doctor choc about his promise to write a statement for her.

She was asked what she meant by the note: 'I'LL NEVER HAVE CHILDREN OR MARRY I'LL NEVER KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO HAVE A FAMILY'.

She replied: 'Just that I'd never meet anybody and therefore I'd never have a family…Because nobody would want to

So getting this straight, she believes that her redeployment would result in her becoming husbandless and childless FOREVER?
Blimey. Who knew you had to be a NICU nurse to get a partner or become pregnant?

 

[Anxala]

The explanation that she will never have kids, because she will never meet anyone, I find interesting.

Why is she thinking she will never meet anyone? To me, it demonstrates that she was aware this might lead to prison. But why would your mind go there if we are only dealing with competency issues? Unless she knows more of course (imo)

Putting guilt or innocence aside for a mo, if you bear in mind that she was seriously upset at being deployed and knowing the reason for that deployment, it's not difficult imo to imagine how her mind might have been working overtime and in a very panicked manner... that if she was eg. to be found guilty of malpractice/incompetence, she then had (potentially) seven baby deaths on her hands. That's a truly terrible thing to contemplate and I can see why she'd think it would follow her for the rest of her life.

Hence her despair that no one would ever want her, and particularly not want to have children with her.

Just a thought.

 

[Becky53]

I like the fact they have highlighted how she was a ‘good nurse’ this isn’t someone who made errors because they didn’t understand what they were doing.
IMO the prosecution is showing, she made a clear choice to do harm.

Me too after reading tweet in timeline by

@JudithMoritz
·
5h

Police question: "Why did you write 'I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough to care for them. I am a horrible evil person'? LL answer“I didn’t kill them on purpose, I felt if my practice hadn’t been right then I had killed them and that was why I wasn’t good enough"

 

[Sweeper2000]

Still lots of questions I was hopi Would be asked and answered. Ie Did. You take handover notes home before 2015. What is it about AE that you don’t know. How did some handover notes end at ur parents house. I’m shocked she wasn’t asked these tbh. Also why are these 30 odd handover notes related only to children in the charges in this one bag ?


at least now we have the whole prosecution done with.

 

[katydid23]

I suppose. Never having been in anything like this situation, I'm just thinking that she's gone into survival mode & blanking things out regarding the babies & their families. Playing devil's advocate here! If she were being calculating she could pretend to be distressed about the babies for the benefit of the jury. I think maybe she's just detached herself from what happened on the unit. JMO

That's possible that she detached herself from what happened on the unit and from the deaths etc. But if so, that might be indicative of someone who could do so easily if necessary and that could be revealing. JMO

 

[Dcflag]

Surely you would expect any correctly trained member of staff to know this, though? In isolation, I don't see it as particularly damning.

She told police she didn’t know what an air embolism was.

 

[Sweeper2000]

She told police she didn’t know what an air embolism was.

Didn’t know exactly what an AE is.partial knowledge.

 

[katydid23]

Ah was this the trigger? (if guilty)

Presumably whilst undergoing that the risk and danger of air embolism was emphasised?

jmo

The timing is very suspect....May 2015 she learned about doing the long line procedures and the charges

Count One, for baby A was on June 8th, 2015....So weeks later, after the training in May, LL set up an IV line for baby A, an alarm sounded and Baby A had collapsed