UK - Nurse Lucy Letby, Faces 22 Charges - 7 Murder/15 Attempted Murder of Babies #20

[Sweeper2000]

Her notes were not insane word salad. To me, they seemed very accurate and heartfelt.

Like ”I am evil and yis”?

 

[Tortoise]

OKAY, CHECK THIS OUT:

Recap: Lucy Letby trial, Friday, May 5 - defence continues

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

Letby says she was involved in chest compressions as part of resuscitation efforts.

Letby is asked why she can now confirm she was in room 3 of the nursery, having not been able to remember to that in police interview. Letby says she was able to remember being in nursery room 3 after since being made aware of which babies were in room 3 that night.

Letby says she can recall alarms going off, but not standing cotside, or saying anything regarding Child C's observations to Sophie Ellis.

She says she was said to have been in room 1 based on the statement by Sophie Ellis, but she tells the court she had not been in that room prior to Child C's collapse.

She says she had been 'put' in that room 1 based on Sophie Ellis's statement. Letby tells the court she has no recollection of being there. She says she suggested explanations to police in interview of what she was doing in room 1 based on the statement, not on her independent recollection.

Letby says her memory of that night was: "I believe that I had been called to help [Child C following his collapse]".

She says she had assumed what police had told her in interview to be true, based on Sophie Ellis's statement.

=================================

WOW!!

evidence from the trial - nurses Sophie Ellis and Mel Taylor

Mr Myers puts it to Miss Ellis that Lucy Letby was not in there at the time of the collapse, and only arrived later [during the resuscitation efforts].
Miss Ellis: "I don't agree with that."
Mr Myers: "You have placed her there when you spoke to the police several years later."
Miss Ellis: "I don't agree with that."

Recap: Lucy Letby trial, Friday, October 28

Mr Myers says Ms Taylor's police statement said she was called over by Sophie Ellis, and there is no mention of Lucy Letby.
Ms Taylor: "No, but she was there."

Prosecution questions -

Ms Taylor said she has not changed her mind about who was present there.
"I tell you now, when I approached the incubator, she [Lucy Letby] was there on the other side."
She added she remembered how "cool and calm" Lucy Letby looked at the time.
Ms Taylor said she hadn't said Lucy Letby was not in room 1 at the time of the collapse.
Ms Taylor tells the court said she didn't think it was necessary at the time to include that information [of Letby's presence] to police.

 

[katydid23]

Messages between Letby and colleague Jennifer Jones-Key are shown to the court, in which her colleague says: "You need a break from full on ITU. You have to let it go or it will eat you up I know not easy and will take time x"

Letby had initially messaged her about wanting to be in room 1, but a colleague had said no. Nurse Jones-Key replied she agreed with the colleague.

Letby is asked, following a disagreement between her and nurse Jones-Key at 11.05pm, whether those messages had led to her taking any action on Child C minutes later. Letby denies that was the case.

Mr Myers: "Do those messages have anything to do with [Child C]?"

Letby: "Not at all."

Letby says she would have been aware of Child C's family during resuscitation efforts, and that was the first time she had seen them.

Asked why she had searched for the parents on Facebook, Letby says they were on her mind.

She adds: "When you go home you don't forget about the babies you cared for."

She says, about what the parents had gone through: "It's unimaginable."

Recap: Lucy Letby trial, Friday, May 5 - defence continues

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

-==============================================================================================

OK, HERE ARE THE TEXTS THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT ABOVE^^^



Text messages exchanged following the deaths of Child A and B show Lucy Letby asking if there were spare shifts going, adding: "Think I need to throw myself back in on Saturday."
The response: "Hopefully it might settle down by then."
Letby: "I think from a confidence point of view I need to take an ITU [intensive treatment unit] baby soon."
The response: "It does knock you a bit when things like that happen, but it's ok to have time out as well. Enjoy the sun"



The court is shown the nursing night shift for June 13, with a different nurse identified as the designated nurse for Child C, and Letby being a nurse for two other babies.



A message sent to Letby on June 13, at 9.48pm, says: "You ok? x"
Letby replies: "I just keep thinking about Mon. Feel like I need to be in [neonatal unit room] 1 to overcome it, but [nursing colleague] said no x"
The colleague responds: "I agree with her, don't think it will help. You need a break from full-on ITU, you need to let it go or it will eat you up..."
Letby responds: "Not the vented baby necessarily, I just feel I need to be in 1, to get the image out of my head."



Letby adds: "It probably sounds odd but it's how I feel x"
The colleague responds: "Well it's up to you but I don't think it's going to help."
After further messages are exchanged, the colleague suggests: "Why don't you go in 1 for a bit?"
Letby responds: "Yeah, I have done a couple of meds in 1."

Letby later adds: "Forget I said anything, I will be fine, it's part of the job. Just don't feel like there is much team spirit tonight x"
The colleague replies: "I am not going to forget but think you're way too hard on yourself..."
Letby referred to previous events she had seen in a women's hospital, and the support available following such events.



The text message conversation, on Whatsapp, concludes at about 11pm.
Child C collapsed 20 minutes later.

Recap: Lucy Letby trial, Wednesday, October 26

 

[JamesMcGillEsquire]

Are we being led to believe, I wonder, that this all began when Ms Letby felt slighted/aggrieved at being asked to come in and cover a shift at short notice?

This alleged first attack whet her apetite, and subsequent attacks became a sort of compulsive act?

It's the closest to any kind of motive or reason, if guilty, we can identify throughout.

Have any significant events in Ms Letby's life, in the days, weeks or months leading up to the first alleged attack, been identified? It just seems unlikely that, if guilty, this all suddenly started out of nowhere, from nothing

JMO

 

[Lammergeier]

So Baby C was born on 10th, had distended stomach “marked gaseous distension of the stomach and proximal small bowel” on 12th, but it’s impossible that Letby was the cause as she didn’t work the 11th or 12th. Hmm

 

[ColourPurple]

DBM

 

[ColourPurple]

no that's her evidence for baby B.

Thanks I'll delete the post

 

[WaxLyrical]

If this was the first time a baby died in Sophie Ellis’s care, I think her memory is likely to be more reliable, given it’s probably one of those things you never forget. JMO.

 

[ColourPurple]

Are we being led to believe, I wonder, that this all began when Ms Letby felt slighted/aggrieved at being asked to come in and cover a shift at short notice?

This alleged first attack whet her apetite, and subsequent attacks became a sort of compulsive act?

It's the closest to any kind of motive or reason, if guilty, we can identify throughout.

Have any significant events in Ms Letby's life, in the days, weeks or months leading up to the first alleged attack, been identified? It just seems unlikely that, if guilty, this all suddenly started out of nowhere, from nothing

JMO

We haven't been given any details of any signifcant events in her private life prior to the alleged attacks. However we have been told that she completed training to be able to adminster medication through long lines at the end of May. She had not been qualified/allowed to do that before that date.

ETA I don't think it's been implied by the prosecution that LL was slighted/aggrieved at being asked to come in and cover a shift at short notice.

 

[Xanadu62]

Are we being led to believe, I wonder, that this all began when Ms Letby felt slighted/aggrieved at being asked to come in and cover a shift at short notice?

This alleged first attack whet her apetite, and subsequent attacks became a sort of compulsive act?

It's the closest to any kind of motive or reason, if guilty, we can identify throughout.

Have any significant events in Ms Letby's life, in the days, weeks or months leading up to the first alleged attack, been identified? It just seems unlikely that, if guilty, this all suddenly started out of nowhere, from nothing

JMO

She only completed training to work in that unit 2 months before. So that I supposed is the significant event. The other units she would have been on before ICU would have been much busier with more babies and staff - less opportunity to do anything untoward without being spotted.

"Letby obtained her 'QIS' qualification allowing her to look after intensive care babies, following a university module, which included a placement at Liverpool Women's Hospital involving hands-on clinical experience. The six-month course concluded in March/April 2015."

Recap: Lucy Letby trial, Tuesday, May 2 - defence begins

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

MOO

 

[esther43]

Messages between Letby and colleague Jennifer Jones-Key are shown to the court, in which her colleague says: "You need a break from full on ITU. You have to let it go or it will eat you up I know not easy and will take time x"

Letby had initially messaged her about wanting to be in room 1, but a colleague had said no. Nurse Jones-Key replied she agreed with the colleague.

Letby is asked, following a disagreement between her and nurse Jones-Key at 11.05pm, whether those messages had led to her taking any action on Child C minutes later. Letby denies that was the case.

Mr Myers: "Do those messages have anything to do with [Child C]?"

Letby: "Not at all."

Letby says she would have been aware of Child C's family during resuscitation efforts, and that was the first time she had seen them.

Asked why she had searched for the parents on Facebook, Letby says they were on her mind.

She adds: "When you go home you don't forget about the babies you cared for."

She says, about what the parents had gone through: "It's unimaginable."

Recap: Lucy Letby trial, Friday, May 5 - defence continues

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

-==============================================================================================

OK, HERE ARE THE TEXTS THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT ABOVE^^^



Text messages exchanged following the deaths of Child A and B show Lucy Letby asking if there were spare shifts going, adding: "Think I need to throw myself back in on Saturday."
The response: "Hopefully it might settle down by then."
Letby: "I think from a confidence point of view I need to take an ITU [intensive treatment unit] baby soon."
The response: "It does knock you a bit when things like that happen, but it's ok to have time out as well. Enjoy the sun"



The court is shown the nursing night shift for June 13, with a different nurse identified as the designated nurse for Child C, and Letby being a nurse for two other babies.



A message sent to Letby on June 13, at 9.48pm, says: "You ok? x"
Letby replies: "I just keep thinking about Mon. Feel like I need to be in [neonatal unit room] 1 to overcome it, but [nursing colleague] said no x"
The colleague responds: "I agree with her, don't think it will help. You need a break from full-on ITU, you need to let it go or it will eat you up..."
Letby responds: "Not the vented baby necessarily, I just feel I need to be in 1, to get the image out of my head."



Letby adds: "It probably sounds odd but it's how I feel x"
The colleague responds: "Well it's up to you but I don't think it's going to help."
After further messages are exchanged, the colleague suggests: "Why don't you go in 1 for a bit?"
Letby responds: "Yeah, I have done a couple of meds in 1."

Letby later adds: "Forget I said anything, I will be fine, it's part of the job. Just don't feel like there is much team spirit tonight x"
The colleague replies: "I am not going to forget but think you're way too hard on yourself..."
Letby referred to previous events she had seen in a women's hospital, and the support available following such events.



The text message conversation, on Whatsapp, concludes at about 11pm.
Child C collapsed 20 minutes later.

Recap: Lucy Letby trial, Wednesday, October 26

Did anyone notice how Myers deviated away from the rest of the conversation with SE? Which went like this?

Letby adds: "It probably sounds odd but it's how I feel x"

The colleague responds: "Well it's up to you but I don't think it's going to help."

After further messages are exchanged, the colleague suggests: "Why don't you go in 1 for a bit?"

Letby responds: "Yeah, I have done a couple of meds in 1."

 

[Becky53]

Dan O'Donoghue

@MrDanDonoghue
·
3h

I'll be live tweeting Lucy Letby's trial from Manchester Crown Court again today. The former nurse is said to have murdered seven babies and attacked 10 others between June 2015 and June 2016 at the Countess of Chester Hospital, she denies all charges.

 

[katydid23]

So Baby C was born on 10th, had distended stomach “marked gaseous distension of the stomach and proximal small bowel” on 12th, but it’s impossible that Letby was the cause as she didn’t work the 11th or 12th. Hmm

here is how prosecution explains that:

Child C, the prosecution claim, was murdered by Letby on 14 June.
He was, like many children in this case, born premature - prosecuting, Nick Johnson KC describes him as "significantly premature".
He weighed just 800g (less than 2lbs) when he was born, although he is described as "in good condition".
Although he initially showed signs of breathing distress, after a number of days his respiratory support was reduced and he began to manage to breath independently.
When the nurse checked Child C's stomach contents, they founded traces of bile - an early sign of necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), a serious gastrointestinal disease where a portion of the bowel becomes inflamed and may die.
As a result, the hospital temporarily stopped his feeds - but just hours later Child C was fine, and a decision was made to re-institue milk feeds.

On the night shift of 13 June, beginning at 8pm, a different - less qualified - nurse was allocated responsibility for caring for Child C as he was seen to be stable.
Letby was assigned the care of another child, given the initials of JE, who was considered to be deteriorating. He was grunting, a "potential red flag for breathing problems". JE is not a child mentioned in the indictment.
The shift leader told Letby she had to keep a close eye on JE and "this was a message that [the shift leader] had to reinforce later in the shift when it became clear that Letby was ignoring her," Mr Johnson tells the court.

When Child C's assigned nurse left to go to the nursing station, she heard his alarm go off.
"When she went back into room one, there was Lucy Letby, standing next to Child C's cot," says Mr Johnson.
He says she had "no business" in that room.
At this point, Child C was desaturating - his oxygen levels were dropping - and his heart rate was going down.
He had "suffered a serious deterioration" and "there again at the bedside, or the incubator side, was Lucy Letby", the prosecution tells the court.

Staff tried to assist with Child C's breathing, using a "neopuff" device to help him breathe.
Although he quickly recovered within a short time, he had prolongued periods of low oxygen and his heart rate slowed.
Nick Johnson KC tells the court: "You might get the impression from this case that babies collapsing was a common event in the neonatal unit – after all this was the 3rd in a few days - but this was the first time Child C's assigned nurse had ever seen a collapse and resuscitation - that's how uncommon it was."
Her colleague says Letby told her: "He's going, he's going."
"She was right," Mr Johnson says.
He says Letby was unhappy with being assigned to a different room to Child C.
He tells the jury: "She texted an offduty colleague saying that she, Lucty Letby, wanted to be in room number one, saying it would be cathertic for her, it would help her wellbeing, to see a living baby in the space previously occupied by a dead baby - Child A - a baby who had died a few days earlier.
"But the shift leader had put her in room three. So she didn't like it

Child C was pronounced dead just before 6am on the 14 June 2015.
At thge time, the consultant pathologist gave the cause of death as "widespread hypoxic/ischaemic damage to the heart/myocardium due to lung disease".
Child C's vocal cords were "swollen" - something the prosuection say is a reoccuring feature in this case.
Independent medical experts who reviewed the cases thought that infection was a "significant factor" in Child C's collapse, "but did not adequately explain it".
"The damage to his heart was the result of, rather than the cause of his collapse," says Nick Johnson, KC.
A second doctor said "althought Child C had pneumonia at the time of his death, she believed that was not the cause of death".
She said Child C's collapse was concerning and had no clear cause.
Her view was "the only feasible mechanism" for the excessive air in the gut at the time of the collapse was the deliberate introduction of air via the nasal gastric tube.
"This was a variation - or refinement - of a theme Lucy Letby had started with Children A and B," says Mr Johnson




Lucy Letby trial - latest: Nurse 'adamant' she's done nothing to harm any of the babies in the case as defence begins

 

[ColourPurple]

She only completed training to work in that unit 2 months before. So that I supposed is the significant event. The other units she would have been on before ICU would have been much busier with more babies and staff - less opportunity to do anything untoward without being spotted.

"Letby obtained her 'QIS' qualification allowing her to look after intensive care babies, following a university module, which included a placement at Liverpool Women's Hospital involving hands-on clinical experience. The six-month course concluded in March/April 2015."

Recap: Lucy Letby trial, Tuesday, May 2 - defence begins

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

MOO

I'm still not convinced that the 2015 date wasn't an error or typo, as there's the evidence of her saying she was doing ICU training and had been on a placement in Liverpool back in March 2013

https://www.coch.nhs.uk/media/74654/chester_standard_babygrow_page_1070kb__28.03.2013_.pdf

 

[Marantz4250b]

We haven't been given any details of any signifcant events in her private life prior to the alleged attacks. However we have been told that she completed training to be able to adminster medication through long lines at the end of May. She had not been qualified/allowed to do that before that date.

ETA I don't think it's been implied by the prosecution that LL was slighted/aggrieved at being asked to come in and cover a shift at short notice.

Hasn't she made the point on several occasions that she was happy to given that she was close to the hospital, had no family or other commitments?

 

[katydid23]

A round-up from this morning in court:

Lucy Letby was ‘stunned’ at death of first alleged victim

 

[DinerMite]

Hasn't she made the point on several occasions that she was happy to given that she was close to the hospital, had no family or other commitments?

She has indeed. The reports today also confirmed she was "flexible" in her approach to work so it wouldnt be fair to say annoyed, she was just annoyed she wasnt in Room 1.

 

[Jazmania]

So Baby C was born on 10th, had distended stomach “marked gaseous distension of the stomach and proximal small bowel” on 12th, but it’s impossible that Letby was the cause as she didn’t work the 11th or 12th. Hmm

Here is the evidence I can find in relation to that from consultant Dr Gibbs:

11:26am

A diagram of the small and large intestine is presented to the court.
Mr Myers asks about the passage of air, and refers to radiograph images for Child C, one taken on June 12, and the accompanying note refers to 'marked gaseous distension of the stomach and proximal small bowel'.
Dr Gibbs says there is 'not much air in the large intestine' shown.
Mr Myers asks if there is an obstruction.
Dr Gibbs says it is a possibility, and the air seen is common for babies on CPAP ventilation.
Mr Myers asks if there is an intestinal blockage.
Dr Gibbs says it is a possibility.
Mr Myers says a symptom of intestinal blockage is vomiting dark bile.
Dr Gibbs says there is only one recorded instance of that, and the symptom would be 'repeated vomiting'.
He says a sign of an intestinal blockage would be a 'very distended abdomen', and when he examined him on June 13, Child C had a 'soft, not distended abdomen'.


LIVE: Lucy Letby trial, Monday, November 1

 

[DinerMite]

It's very daring for the defense to go head to head with 2 of the witnesses imo. SE and MT both have matching accounts and they oppose LLs. I feel this has left a big opening for the prosecution during cross.

 

[ColourPurple]

She has indeed. The reports today also confirmed she was "flexible" in her approach to work so it wouldnt be fair to say annoyed, she was just annoyed she wasnt in Room 1.

True but for Baby A she was in room 1 so that can't have been a trigger for that one. If guilty etc .IMO