London:
A nurse accused of murdering seven babies at the British hospital where she worked was disturbed by the mother of one of her victims when she tried to kill him, a court heard Tuesday.
The woman arrived at the neonatal ward of the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, North West England on the evening of August 4, 2015, where her son was found “sad and bleeding from the mouth.
But Lucy Letby said “trust me, I’m a nurse” and asked her to leave, prosecutor Nick Johnson told Manchester Crown Court.
The young boy died the next day, reportedly from an injection of air into the bloodstream.
Johnson told a jury that the unwitting mother was “renounced” by Letby, 32, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, and has attempted to kill 10 other babies, including some more than once.
The lawyer said Letby, originally from Hereford in the west of England, made “fraudulent” nursing notes after the event in an attempt to cover her tracks.
She also searched social media for the boy’s family, who was called “child E” in court in the days and months after, also on Christmas Day.
Hours after “Child E” died on August 5, 2015, Letby allegedly attempted to kill his twin “Child F” by injecting insulin into a bag of nutritional fluids.
Johnson said negligence was out of the question as no other baby in the ward had been given insulin and Letby hung up the bag and was in the room at the time the boy was poisoned.
“The only credible candidate” to be the poisoner was Letby, he said, “the same person who was present in all the unexplained collapses and deaths at Countess of Chester Hospital in the neonatal ward.”
The murders of five boys and two girls and attempted murders of five boys and five girls are said to have taken place between June 2015 and June 2016.
‘On purpose’
The court was told that the first victim — “Child A” — was born prematurely and was only one day old when he died on June 8, 2015, again after an injection of air into the bloodstream.
His twin sister – “Child B” – survived an attempt hours later, while “Child C” – a five-day-old baby boy – was killed six days later when air was injected into his stomach.
Letby was on duty on all three occasions.
Her next victim – a premature baby, “Child D” – died on June 22, 2015, again using the same method, it was alleged.
The prosecution said that Letby sent messages to friends afterwards, explaining that the cases could be explained by natural causes.
She also searched Facebook again for the child’s parents.
In September of that year, Letby is said to have tried three times to kill a girl who had been born four months earlier and weighed just over 500 grams (1.1 pounds).
The prosecution said the baby – referred to as “Child G” – was fed excessive amounts of milk and was likely injected with air, causing her to vomit.
On the third time, she stopped breathing.
But Johnson said a monitor to measure oxygen saturation and heart rate levels was turned off and that Letby, who had “discovered” the unresponsive child, was trying to resuscitate her.
The child was left “severely disabled”, he added.
Johnson said all deaths and collapses were “not natural or random events.”
“They were deliberate attempts to kill using slightly different methods with which Lucy Letby tried to give the appearance of chance events,” he added.
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