Lucy Letby maintains innocence after police question her about more baby deaths
Lucy Letby’s lawyer says the killer nurse maintains her innocence
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Killer nurse Lucy Letby has maintained her innocence after police confirmed she has been interviewed about more suspicious baby deaths, her lawyer said on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old was questioned under caution about further unexpected deaths and collapses of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital, her former place of work where she was found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder eight others.
For the first time, Letby was also questioned under caution about her time at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where she trained as a student, Cheshire Police confirmed.
Letby is serving a whole-life sentence for the murders and attempted murders which took place between June 2015 and 2016 while she worked as a neonatal nurse at Countess of Chester.
Mark McDonald, Letby’s lawyer, maintained on Wednesday that she is innocent of the crimes for which she was convicted.
“The police have been briefing about further inquiries for over a year,” Mr McDonald said. “Any allegations need to be taken seriously so we are only surprised by the timing of this new leak from the police, given that there is now substantial information that undermines Lucy Letby’s convictions.
“Lucy voluntarily attended an interview; she was not arrested. Lucy continues to maintain her innocence and, as she has said throughout, she has never and would never harm any child.
“The continuing leaking and briefing of information in this case by the police since the investigation began in 2017 is deeply concerning and needs to stop.
“Everybody is entitled to a fair hearing and right now the police are arguably preventing this from taking place.”
Cheshire Police said in an earlier statement that Letby was recently “interviewed in prison under caution” in relation to “baby deaths and non-fatal collapses at the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital”.
Detectives are reviewing the care of some 4,000 babies who were admitted to hospitals while Letby was working as a neonatal nurse. This includes her time at the Countess of Chester Hospital between January 2012 and the end of June 2016, and two shorter stints at Liverpool Women’s Hospital in 2012 and 2015.
Only the cases in which medical concerns are noted will be investigated further, Cheshire Police previously said.
Letby is currently serving 15 whole-life orders in HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Surrey, which caters for category A women prisoners. In August 2023, she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven babies, and attempting to murder seven more, with two attempts on one of her victims.
Dr Stephen Brearey, a senior paediatrician at the Countess of Chester’s neonatal unit, told the Thirlwall Inquiry - which is looking into the Letby case - that the nurse is “likely” to have murdered or attacked more babies before she killed her first victim.
“On reflection I think it’s likely that Letby didn’t start becoming a killer in June 2015, or didn’t start harming babies in June 2015,” Dr Brearey told the hearing in Liverpool. “I think it’s likely that her actions prior to then over a period of time changed what we perceived to be abnormal.”
The inquiry has heard that babies’ breathing tubes became dislodged on 40 per cent of Letby’s shifts at Liverpool Women’s Hospital between October and December 2012 and January and February 2015.