A mother unknowingly walked in on an alleged serial killer nurse murdering her newborn child in 2015 at a hospital in England, prosecutors told a Manchester Crown Court this week.
Lucy Letby, who formerly worked at Countess of Chester Hospital, allegedly murdered seven newborn children while on the job and tried to kill ten other babies from June 2015 to June 2016.
“Trust me, I’m a nurse,” the mother was allegedly told by Letby after she noticed her child was bleeding from the mouth.
The trial of Chester nurse Lucy Letby is beginning at Manchester Crown Court. She is charged with murdering 7 babies, and attempting to murder another 10 at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015-June 2016. She denies all the charges. Coverage on #BBCNews pic.twitter.com/zuqRx31uV2
— Judith Moritz (@JudithMoritz) October 10, 2022
Prosecutor Nick Johnson told the court Tuesday that the mother unknowingly walked in on Letby killing her son by injection, and was told by the nurse that staff would take care of the baby and she should leave the unit.
“We say that she interrupted Lucy Letby who was attacking [Child E], although she did not realise it at the time,” Johnson said, according to Sky News. (Note: victims’ names have been removed.)
Letby allegedly injected the baby’s bloodstream with air while working in the neonatal unit on August 3, 2015.
When the mother noticed her “distressed” child was bleeding from his mouth, Letby told her to leave.
“‘Trust me, I’m a nurse’. That’s what she told (the mother),” Johnson said, adding, “We suggest she was fobbed off by Lucy Letby.”
A police officer enters a house in Chester after healthcare professional, Lucy Letby, working at the Countess of Chester Hospital was arrested on suspicion of murdering eight babies and attempting to kill six others, on July 3, 2018 in Chester, United Kingdom. Anthony Devlin/Getty Images
BBC correspondent Judith Moritz, who was present at the trial on Tuesday, noted that the baby dubbed Child E has a twin brother.
The prosecution said the baby “was bleeding so heavily that one of the doctors said he had never encountered such a large bleed in a small baby, like this,” Moritz reported online. “Subsequent expert evidence establishes that this would have represented a combined loss of over 25% of baby E’s blood volume.”
Notably, Letby, according to prosecution, took a “very unusual interest” in the twins’ parents and searched for them on social media, including on Christmas Day in 2015, Moritz said.
“These were not naturally-occurring, or random events; they were deliberate attempts to kill using slightly different methods by whilst Lucy Letby sought to give the appearance of chance events on the neonatal unit,” prosecution reportedly charged Tuesday.
Prosecution: “These were not naturally-occurring, or random events; they were deliberate attempts to kill using slightly different methods by whilst Lucy Letby sought to give the appearance of chance events on the neonatal unit”
— Judith Moritz (@JudithMoritz) October 11, 2022
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