Lucy Letby trial: Court hears harrowing testimony from parents of baby allegedly killed by nurse

Prosecutors believed the collapses and deaths of 17 babies were the work of nurse Lucy Letby. Photo / Supplied, File

A mother of twins who watched her newborn son die after he was allegedly killed by a nurse tasked with protecting him has told a UK court of her utter devastation at never being able to hold him while he was alive and revealed details of how his twin sister was almost taken from her.

The mum, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was resting after her emergency caesarean section when she was told to come quickly to the neonatal unit. She was confronted by a team of doctors and nurses battling to save her son’s life.

She was heard to scream: “Please don’t let my baby die. Please don’t let my baby die” as they attempted to resuscitate him while the twins’ father stood shocked and frozen “like a statue”.

The twins are referred to in court as Baby A and Baby B. The list of nurse Lucy Letby’s alleged victims stretches to Baby Q, all treated at Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.

Baby B, a girl, was born first 1.67kg and her brother followed a minute later weighing 1.7kg.

Lucy Letby has been charged with murdering eight babies. Photo / Supplied

“I remember seeing what I can only describe as hundreds of people around his cot. A nurse asked if I was religious and would I like her to say a prayer,” the mother told the court.

A consultant then told the parents that even if they could bring their son back he would be severely brain damaged and asked for their permission to stop CPR.

“I was so upset I couldn’t bring myself to say stop. It was (my husband) who said ‘You have to…You’re being cruel…He’s not there any more’,” the mother said.

“The only thing I could bring myself to do was nod. One of the things that upsets me the most is that I never had the opportunity to hold my son while he was alive.”

She stayed with her son, Baby A, until he was taken away for a post mortem, then went to be with her daughter, Baby B.

She briefly held the tiny girl on her chest, where she said she felt “feelings of joy and sadness” before she left briefly with her husband to get food.

Then, their nightmare started again as they were called to come urgently to their daughter’s bedside.

“My heart sank. I thought ‘Not my baby – not again’,” she told Manchester Crown Court.

A consultant then told the parents that their daughter’s heart and oxygen saturation levels had fallen rapidly, much as their son’s had, but that she had stabilised.

The doctor noted that the girl had developed unusual mottling and asked for permission to take photos.

“She said she’d never seen this before. I imagined a consultant would have seen all sorts of things,” the mother said.

She said she then felt “frantic and terrified about leaving her”.

“She’d been crying all the time. She was unsettled. It was as if she was trying to tell me something was wrong.”

Each twin was under the care of Lucy Letby when their condition deteriorated, with the nurse being the only one present when Baby A collapsed - and the nurse stands accused of injecting air into the tiny infants’ bloodstreams.

Lucy Letby. Photo / Facebook

‘He died very suddenly...not sure why’

Messages from Lucy Letby to colleagues in the aftermath of Baby A’s death were presented to the court, alongside evidence that she searched the grieving mother’s Facebook page.

“It was awful. He died very suddenly and unexpectedly just after handover. Not sure why. It’s gone to the coroner. They are querying a clotting problem. Very sad,” Letby wrote to a colleague.

The colleague responded: “Oh God, he was doing really well when I left.”

Letby replied: “Just collapsed very suddenly. Awful. He had really good day on Monday then I took over Monday night”.

“I’m sorry it happened when you were taking care of him,” the colleague told Letby. “You’re not having a good run at the moment.”

Chillingly, Letby told her colleague that “these things happen”.

The court heard she then made repeated Facebook searches on the dead infant’s mother.

She later expressed concern about caring for Baby B, saying she didn’t want to see the parents.

“Haven’t had much sleep. Don’t really want to see parents but it’s got to be done.

“Dad was on the floor crying saying ‘please don’t take our baby away’ when we took him to the mortuary. It’s just heart-breaking.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Hopefully have a more positive one tonight.”

‘I am evil, I did this’

Earlier, jurors were shown a green post-it note written by 32-year-old Letby which said: “I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough.”

She also allegedly wrote: “I am a horrible evil person” and in capital letters, “I AM EVIL I DID THIS.”

The nurse's tightly-written notes were shown to the jury during the trial. Photo / CPS

According to court documents, Letby is alleged to have taken photos of two babies’ bodies after she had killed them.

The photo was of two brothers together in a cot after she spent time with their grieving parents following their death.

She allegedly murdered one baby of a triplet, on June 24, 2016, just a day after she was said to have murdered his brother.

One of the babies, a premature infant, had suffered an “acute deterioration” before plans were put in place to move him to another hospital.

One doctor was said to be optimistic about his prospects. Then “all of a sudden Lucy Letby said to him something like ‘he’s not leaving alive here, is he?’”, said prosecutor Nick Johnson KC.

Shortly after, another child collapsed and died, Manchester Crown Court heard.

He said: “That remark surprised [the doctor] but Lucy Letby’s prediction came true. After all, she knew what she had done to him and therefore she knew what was likely to happen.

“It is certainly what she intended because it was something she had done to so many other children.”

Letby’s lawyer claimed there were widespread problems with the neonatal unit, suggesting it was overstretched and understaffed, and pointed to a range of potential causes of death for the babies who passed away.

However, the Crown says the collapses and deaths of all 17 children in the case were not “naturally-occurring tragedies” but were caused by Letby, a “constant malevolent presence when things took a turn for the worse”.

Letby denies all charges. The trial continues.