Karen Rees, the head of nursing at the Countess of Chester hospital before her retirement in March 2018, revealed to the Sunday Times that she had always believed in Letby’s innocence.
This month, an international panel of experts said they had found no evidence Letby murdered or harmed any of the babies she was accused of attacking, and that they had suffered a catalogue of “bad medical care” or deteriorated as a result of natural causes.
“I trusted Lucy’s ward manager when she looked me in the eye and said ‘she’s [Letby] fantastic and she’s right by the book, she does everything right,” she said.
Lucy Letby’s former boss has said “if she was acting she deserves an Oscar” as she described tearful meetings with the neonatal nurse after accusations against her first emerged.
Letby is serving 15 whole-life prison terms after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill another seven in 2015 and 2016, making her Britain’s worst child serial killer of modern times.
