Suspicions began when there was a “significant increase” in the number of babies dying at the hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
32-year-old nurse Lucy Letby is charged with the murder of five boys and two girls and the attempted murder of 10 other babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Suspicions began when there was a “significant increase” in the number of babies dying at the hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
“As doctors searched for a cause for the children’s deaths, which they were unable to find, the counselors noticed that the unexplained deaths had a common denominator,” said Nick Johnson KC, prosecuting. “The presence of one of the neonatal nurses, Lucy Letby.” At the same time, he added that the increases in deaths were noticed by hospital consultants, who were concerned that “the health of the dying babies had deteriorated unexpectedly”.
Letby said she poisoned the babies with insulin and cited two boys born in the summer of 2015 and the spring of 2016, the Times reported.
“The collapses of all 17 children were not ‘natural tragedies,'” Johnson continued. “It was all the work of the woman in the dock, who was a constant, malevolent presence when things turned bad for these 17 kids.”
The doctors also noted that the babies who died “did not respond to appropriate and timely resuscitation and that others collapsed dramatically but then, just as dramatically, recovered.”
Johnson told the court that, as doctors could not account for the collapses and deaths, the police were called.
“The police investigation showed that in the period between 2015 and 2016, someone in the neonatal unit poisoned two children with insulin“, he added.
Letby was first arrested on suspicion of committing the crimes in 2018, Cheshire Police said in a statement.
She was subsequently granted bail pending further enquiries, the statement added.
A year later she was arrested again “on suspicion of murder in connection with the deaths of 8 babies and the attempted murder of 6 babies,” as well as “the attempted murder of three additional babies,” police added.
The 32-year-old nurse, however, denies all 22 charges against her and her trial could last up to six months, according to the BBC.
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