Lucy Letby is a ‘frightened young woman’ and ‘deserves an Oscar if she’s lying’ over baby deaths, ex-boss says

LUCY Letby's former boss has said that the nurse deserves an Oscar if she is lying over the deaths of babies and believes she is innocent. Karen Rees, 62, was formerly head of nursing at the Countess of Chester Hospital, where seven babies died under Letby's care. Letby, 35, is serving 15 whole life orders after she was found guilty of murdering seven babies and trying to kill seven others at the Chester hospital.

She lost two attempts to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal last year, although medical experts claimed they found "no evidence" of murder and instead blamed the babies' deaths on hospital errors, earlier this month. She had first met Letby in summer 2016 when had to tell the nurse she was being removed from the neonatal ward following concerns over her "clinical practice". Rees claims that weekly management-advised wellbeing meetings she had with Letby following this revealed how "very distressed" the nurse was.

She added that Letby was always crying whenever the two would meet and claimed the nurse told her she would not be driven out from the "job that I love", proclaiming she had "done nothing wrong". Rees says this happened for weeks on end and that "she deserves an Oscar" if she was lying about being innocent. Their weekly meetings came as Letby was investigated, following a rise in baby deaths at the neonatal ward that aligned with Lucy's shifts there.

Rees added: "I know that they say psychopaths are clever - but if she was acting she deserves an Oscar because she was so convincing.". The nurse's former boss also said Letby was hurt by the allegations as they came from people she saw as friends, not just colleagues. Dr Stephen Brearey and Dr Ravi Jayaram raised concerns about the deaths of three infants, later known as babies A, C and D between June 8 and June 22, 2015.

Baby B, A's twin sister, had also collapsed but survived after being resuscitated. Rees believes Letby to be innocent, saying she trusted the team around the nurse, that she claims some believe Letby to be innocent, know her best and that this behaviour would not fit Letby's character. She says a colleague had told her Letby was a strict rule-follower and could have never done this. Following concerns for her mental health, Rees created a WhatsApp group with others to try and support Letby.

Messages have since emerged from the chat that supported Letby, telling her to hold strong until the investigation was complete. Rees has admitted getting too close to Letby, who was taken out for tea every couple of months by the group. The nurse was also undergoing counselling at the time and was encouraged to write down stressful thoughts on her mind, of which some were relied on by the prosecution during her first trial.

Post-it notes and a torn sheet of paper included densely written comments such as: "I am evil I did this", "I killed them on purpose because I am not good enough to care for them and I am a horrible evil person", and "hate". Despite these, Rees claims Letby never expressed this sentiment during their meetings and that she was a "quiet, normal 28-year-old". However, Letby's ex-boss claims that stress would make the nurse "catatonic".

Letby's months in limbo saw forensic reviews of each death reported, although these never happened, and no Datix forms (clinical incident reporting sytem) were completed about the nurse's clinical practice. Despite attempts to have Letby return to the neonatal unit, the two consultants who initially raised concerns, and other doctors, declined to work with Letby, ending hopes of her being reinstated.

A personal plea by the nurse in 2017 to return to the unit saw Rees read out her statement at a meeting with the executive team and the consultant body. Child A, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby injected air intravenously into the bloodstream of the baby boy. COUNT 1 GUILTY. Child B, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby attempted to murder the baby girl, the twin sister of Child A, by injecting air into her bloodstream. COUNT 2 GUILTY.

Child C, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said Letby forced air down a feeding tube and into the stomach of the baby boy. COUNT 3 GUILTY. Child D, allegation of murder. The Crown said air was injected intravenously into the baby girl. COUNT 4 GUILTY. Child E, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby murdered the twin baby boy with an injection of air into the bloodstream and also deliberately caused bleeding to the infant. COUNT 5 GUILTY.

Child F, allegation of attempted murder. Letby was said by prosecutors to have poisoned the twin brother of Child E with insulin. COUNT 6 GUILTY. Child G, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby targeted the baby girl by overfeeding her with milk and pushing air down her feeding tube. COUNT 7 GUILTY, COUNT 8 GUILTY, COUNT 9 NOT GUILTY. Child H, two allegations of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby sabotaged the care of the baby girl in some way which led to two profound oxygen desaturations. COUNT 10 NOT GUILTY, COUNT 11 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.