Mom of Baby Killed by Nurse Lucy Letby Says She Felt 'Uneasy in Her Presence' at Hospital
The disgraced English nurse is serving 15 life sentences for murdering seven infants and attempting to kill six more
The mother of one of the seven infants killed by British nurse Lucy Letby says she became consumed with reviewing her child’s medical records while trying to find out what happened to her newborn, who mysteriously died at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2018.
“I was just losing myself,” the mother told British judge Lady Justice Thirlwall during the government’s investigation into the murders. “I was no longer a friend, or a daughter or a wife.”
Letby, 34, was found guilty last August of killing seven babies and attempting to kill six others between June 2015 and June 2016 while working as a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, England, about 25 miles south of Liverpool.
In July, Letby was convicted of attempting to kill another baby girl during a retrial.
In total, the ex-neonatal nurse has been given 15 life sentences in prison.
Letby was accused throughout the trial of killing babies and attempting to kill more by poisoning some with insulin and injecting others with air, PEOPLE previously reported.
The former nurse has continued to maintain her innocence, despite being sentenced to life in prison. “I’m not guilty of what I’ve been found guilty of,” Letby said at her retrial earlier this summer, according to the BBC, who reported she was denied permission to appeal the verdicts.
Related: Lucy Letby Trial: What to Know About the Nurse Convicted of Murdering 7 Infants in U.K. Hospital
Since then, the British government has launched the Thirlwall Inquiry “to examine events at the Countess of Chester Hospital and their implications following” Letby’s trial, according to a government website. The inquiry began in September with witnesses and victims providing oral testimony and evidence to the court earlier this month, according to the inquiry, as officials examine the wider fallout from Letby’s case.
The Times has reported on the inquiry and the government’s investigation since Letby’s trial ended earlier this summer, including a report Tuesday, Sept. 17, that shared some of the testimony from the mother of “Baby D,” the third infant Letby was found guilty of killing.
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The mother described feeling like she “was losing my mind” after her child’s death, according to The Times. She said her life “crumbled” after receiving the shocking news that the baby died in the middle of the night despite being in good health after being born.
She told the inquiry that she recalled feeling “uncomfortable” with Letby in the room after her child’s birth, adding that it felt like the former nurse was “just watching us” and “waiting” for something. “I had what some would call instinct,” the mother said, according to The Times. “I felt very uneasy in her presence.”
Related: British Nurse Lucy Letby Given 15th Life Sentence for Attempted Murder of Baby Girl: 'No Remorse'
The mother accused the hospital of trying to shoo her away after her child’s death, she reportedly told the inquiry, telling officials that “it felt like they were just trying to file my case and I was not having it.”
The Times reported that the mother said the hospital needs to own up to its role in letting Letby take care of children, many of whom she tried to harm.
“If I wasn’t failed in the first place by the Countess in dozens of ways — and all against the protocol and guidelines they should have followed — my daughter wouldn’t have ended up in intensive care, I wouldn’t end up poorly and destroyed, and she wouldn’t end up in a place where someone is preying on babies,” the mother reportedly said. “As a strict minimum they owe us an apology, they owe the babies an apology and all the families who have suffered.”
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