Steve Barclay orders independent inquiry after Lucy Letby guilty

Lucy Letby: Cheshire Constabulary share footage from arrest

The Government has ordered an independent inquiry after nurse Lucy Letby was found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others at a hospital neonatal unit.

The Department of Health said the probe will look into the circumstances behind the murders and attempted murders of babies at Countess of Chester Hospital.

It will investigate the handling of concerns and governance, and will also look at what actions were taken by regulators and the wider NHS.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: “I would like to send my deepest sympathy to all the parents and families impacted by this horrendous case.

“This inquiry will seek to ensure the parents and families impacted get the answers they need.

“I am determined their voices are heard, and they are involved in shaping the scope of the inquiry should they wish to do so.

“Following on from the work already underway by NHS England, it will help us identify where and how patient safety standards failed to be met and ensure mothers and their partners rightly have faith in our healthcare system.”

The jury delivered their verdict at Manchester Crown Court today following 22 days of deliberations.

Letby was accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder a further 10 when she worked at the Countess of Chester’s neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.

She had denied the charges and was not present in the dock.

The jury could not reach verdicts on six counts of attempted murder.

Prosecutors said Letby was a “calculated opportunist” who used the vulnerabilities of premature and sick infants to camouflage her acts.

In 2015 and 2016, there was a significant rise in the number of babies who suffered serious and unexpected collapses in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Letby was the only member of the nursing and clinical staff who was on duty each time the collapses happened, which the Crown argued were not natural events.

She used various ways to harm the babies including injecting air into the bloodstream, injecting air into the stomach, overfeeding with milk, physical assaults and poisoning with insulin.

Some of the children were subjected to repeated attempts to kill them by the “cold, cruel and relentless” band 5 staff nurse, the trial which began last October heard.

Letby’s presence when collapses took place was first mentioned to senior management by the unit’s head consultant in late June 2015.

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Concerns among some consultants about the defendant increased and were voiced to hospital bosses when more unexplained and unusual collapses followed, the court heard.

But Letby was not removed from the unit until after the deaths of two triplet boys and the collapse of another baby boy on three successive days in June 2016.

Letby was confined to clerical work and in September 2016 registered a grievance procedure.

It emerged during legal argument in the trial – in the absence of the jury – that the grievance procedure was resolved in Letby’s favour in December 2016.

Letby was due to return to the neonatal unit in March 2017, but the move did not take place as soon after police were contacted by the hospital trust.

The nurse was arrested at her semi-detached home in Westbourne Road, Chester, on July 3 2018.

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