A team of former senior managers at the Countess of Chester hospital have apologised for the delay in contacting the police over suspicions concerning Lucy Letby and a number of baby deaths.
Letby, a 34-year-old former nurse at the hospital, was sentenced to 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted across two trials of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others.
The inquiry, led by Lady Justice Thirlwall at Liverpool town hall, will examine events at the hospital’s neonatal unit, where Letby was a nurse from 2015 to 2016.
The inquiry has heard concerns that it took until May 2017 for senior management to contact Cheshire police over suspected links between Letby and baby deaths. The former nurse was first arrested in 2018 and convicted in 2023 and 2024.
Kate Blackwell KC appeared before the inquiry on Friday representing Ian Harvey, a former medical director at the Countess of Chester, Alison Kelly, a former director of nursing and quality at the hospital, Antony Chambers, a former chief executive and Susan Hodkinson, a former director of people and organisational development.
She said there had been a “significant delay” in contacting police while bosses sought to investigate the matter and that “for this, they are truly sorry”.
“The reviews were commissioned in good faith, not to conceal the truth, but to uncover it,” she said.
Peter Skelton KC, who is representing the parents of seven of Letby’s victims, said on Thursday that senior management had kept families “in the dark” over investigations into their children’s deaths.
Responding, Blackwell said this had “caused hurt and anxiety, and for this the senior managers are deeply sorry”.
“This was not done with the intention to deliberately attempt to cause anguish nor was it to involve a conspiracy of dishonesty. At the time they believed they were providing the right level of information, they wanted to make sure that what they were saying was accurate. In hindsight, they could and should have communicated far better than they did, she said.
Blackwell also told the inquiry the senior managers were deeply affected by what happened at their hospital.
“While we do not suggest, in any way, parity with what the families of those killed and harmed by Letby have experienced, it has been the most significant event of any of our professional lives,” she said. “Not a day goes by when we don’t think about what happened.
“That a nurse could be responsible for these heinous crimes is profoundly disturbing.”
Appearing for NHS England, Jason Beer KC apologised “for the mistakes and systems failures in the way these crimes were investigated” and a “lack of compassion and candour” as well as lack of support for the families.
The inquiry continues and is expected to last nearly five months, with a report expected at the end of 2025.
