✕ClosePolice footage shows neonatal unit in hospital where Lucy Letby worked
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
The former chief executive of the hospital where Lucy Letby murdered seven babies ordered doctors who raised concerns about her to apologise, it has been reported.
Consultants warned for months that the nurse had been the only medic present during the sudden collapses and deaths of a number of premature babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
But they were told to apologise in January 2017 after two reviews found no wrongdoing against her, The Guardian reports.
After one of the reviews Tony Chambers, then the hospital’s chief executive, said he had spent hours talking to Letby and her father and believed she was innocent.
Mr Chambers then ordered the consultants to apologise to Letby and said she would return to work on the unit imminently, the paper said.
However, she did not return to the neonatal unit and a police investigation began four months later.
Earlier, doctor Ravi Jayaram, a consultant at the hospital, said he was warned against reporting Letby to police as “it would be really bad for the reputation of the trust” – calling it a “Kafkaesque situation”.
Recommended
- Lucy Letby guilty: Neonatal nurse murdered seven babies in their hospital cots as they fought for life
- Could Lucy Letby have been stopped sooner? The missed opportunities to catch a killer revealed
- The chilling ‘souvenirs’ of baby deaths killer nurse Lucy Letby kept under her bed
- Timeline of baby killing nurse Lucy Letby as she’s found guilty of hospital murders
- ‘Trust me I’m a nurse’: How Lucy Letby comforted her victims’ parents as she hid evil secret
Show latest update
Doctors who raised concerns about Letby where ordered to aologise to her
Senior doctors who flagged concerns about Lucy Letby were ordered to apologise to her by a boss at the hospital where she murdered seven babies, it has been reported.
Colleagues of Letby warned for months that the nurse had been the only medic present during the sudden collapses and deaths of a number of premature babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
But they were told to apologise in January 2017 after two reviews found no wrongdoing against her, The Guardian reports.
After one of the reviews Tony Chambers, then the hospital’s chief executive, said he had spent hours talking to Letby and her father and believed she was innocent.
Mr Chambers then ordered the consultants to apologise to Letby and said she would return to work on the unit imminently, the paper said. However, she did not return to the neonatal unit and a police investigation began four months later.
Lucy Letby: Moment killer nurse arrested over baby deathsMatt Mathers19 August 2023 09:121692431678
Families of Lucy Letby’s victims demand answers on why killing spree wasn’t stopped sooner
The families of babies murdered by Lucy Letby have vowed to continue their search for answers as pressure mounted on the hospital where she worked over what more could have been done to stop her killing spree.
The 33-year-old “rogue” nurse was convicted of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six more during her shifts on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital over a year in 2015 and 2016.
The families of her victims have said they have been left “heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb” by her actions.
Gwyn Wright reports:
Families of Lucy Letby’s victims vow to continue search for answers on why she killed
The Countess of Chester Hospital where Letby worked is under mounting pressure over why the nurse was not removed from the neonatal unit sooner
Matt Mathers19 August 2023 08:541692430219
Give inquiry extra powers if witnesses do not come forward, Conservative MP urges government
The inquiry into mass murderer Lucy Letby should be given extra powers if witnesses do not come forward to give evidence, a Conservative MP has said.
Ministers have already launched a probe but it is a non-statutory inquiry, meaning people are not required by law to attend.
Dr Caroline Johnson, a consultant who represents Sleaford and North Hykeham and sits on parliament’s health committee, said she thought the government’s initial decision was the right one but added that extra powers should be given to the inquiry if they were needed.
She told BBC Radio 4 Today: “We need lessons to be learned and answers quickly. I appreciate that people can’t be compelled in the same way but I would hope nevertheless people would still come forward.
“If you have a situation where people don’t come forward – and extra powers are needed by the person who leads the inquiry – then the government will need to look again at the type of inquiry.
“But in the first instance the government’s probably taken the right approach of doing the inquiry quickly.
Matt Mathers19 August 2023 08:301692428353
‘Completely remarkable’ doctors raising concers were not listened to – Tory MP
It is “completely remarkable” that doctors raising concerns about mass murderer Lucy Letby were not listened to, a Conservative MP has said.
Dr Caroline Johnson, a consultant who represents Sleaford and North Hykeham and sits on parliament’s health committee, said bosses at the Countess of Chester hospital where Letby worked had questions to answer.
“When you’ve got seven consultant paediatricians, experts in their field, looking after babies on a neo-natal ward…who are telling you…that these events are unusual…to then say that you’re not going to take action seems completely remarkable to me,” she told BBC Radio 4.
Dr Caroline Johnson will be Sleaford and North Hykeham's new MP after winning 17,570 votes
(Getty)
Matt Mathers19 August 2023 07:591692424800
Letby’s mother cried out as daughter found guilty of murder
Killer nurse Lucy Letby remained entirely emotionless as the jury returned guilty verdicts in the hospital baby poisoning trial that lasted nine months, but her mother sobbed uncontrollably and wailed at the jury:
Lucy Letby’s mother cried out as daughter was found guilty of murder
While the murderer was emotionless, her mother was led sobbing uncontrollably from the courtroom
Jane Dalton19 August 2023 07:001692423000
Watch: Police footage shows neonatal unit
Police footage shows neonatal unit in hospital where Lucy Letby workedJane Dalton19 August 2023 06:301692420900
Letby joins list of UK’s most notorious child killers
The nurse is now the worst serial killer of children in modern UK history, after the likes of the Moors murderers:
Lucy Letby joins list of UK’s most notorious child killers
Lucy Letby, 33, was working at the Countess of Chester Hospital when she carried out the string of attacks on tiny, premature infants.
Jane Dalton19 August 2023 05:551692417600
Watch: Letby found guilty
ICYMI:
Lucy Letby: Nurse found guilty of baby murders on hospital wardJane Dalton19 August 2023 05:001692413400
'Parents should be able to quiz inquiry chair before appointment’
A crossbench peer who conducted an inquiry into child protection in 2003 following the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham a year earlier, said the parents of Letby’s victims should be able to meet and question any proposed chair of the inquiry before their appointment.
Lord Bichard also said he was “slightly surprised” ministers had not put the inquiry into the Letby case onto a statutory footing.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s PM whether the inquiry could have less power as a result, he said: “It doesn’t have to be toothless. You have a huge weight of public opinion behind you if you are chairing an inquiry like this. And that will make it very difficult for someone you want to interview to say no.
“But if you can set up a statutory inquiry, why not set up a statutory inquiry? I don’t know.”
City of Chester MP Samantha Dixon had called for a full, independent and public inquiry into the case.
Jane Dalton19 August 2023 03:501692409800
NHS ‘will do everything possible to prevent a repeat case’
England’s chief nurse says the NHS “is fully committed to doing everything we can to prevent anything like this ever happening again”.
Apologising to the families involved, Ruth May said she welcomed the independent inquiry to help ensure every possible lesson is learnt “from this awful case”.
Jane Dalton19 August 2023 02:50
NewerOlder
✕
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
SubscribeAlready subscribed? Log in
Popular videos
{{/link}}