Lucy Letby sobbed in court as she recalled the “traumatic” death of a baby boy she allegedly murdered before poisoning his twin brother with insulin.
The nurse wiped away tears with a tissue as she told the jury she had “never seen a baby bleed in that way before” when the five-day-old boy died in front of his parents.
“I found [Child E’s] death very traumatic,” Letby said, becoming emotional.
Letby denies murdering seven babies – five boys and two girls – and attempting to kill 10 others on the neo-natal unit of the Countess of Chester hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
The jury has been told that Child E lost at least a quarter of his total blood volume, which was “indicative of trauma”, before he died in August 2015, two months after the alleged murder of three other newborns on the neo-natal unit.
Letby, now 33, was the designated nurse for Child E and had responsibility for comforting his parents when he died, the court was told.
She told jurors this meant fulfilling their wishes to bathe and dress him, record a memento of his hand and footprints, and take photographs after his death.
“They [his parents] didn’t have clothes at that point so we found him a gown from the unit to be dressed in,” she said, wiping her eyes with tissues.
Letby said she created a memory box for the boy’s parents containing two teddy bears, one for Child E and another for his twin brother, Child F.
The nurse, originally from Hereford, is accused of poisoning Child F by lacing his feeding bag with insulin less than 24 hours after allegedly murdering his twin brother.
Under questioning from her barrister, Benjamin Myers KC, for a second day at Manchester crown court, Letby denied harming either of the twins.
Asked whether she had attempted to murder Child F to “finish off something you started” with his brother’s death, Letby replied: “No.”
“Is that something you would do?” Myers asked. “No,” came the reply. “Did you do that here?” he asked. “No,” said Letby.
Earlier on Friday, Letby told her trial it must have been “unimaginable” for parents to lose a newborn baby.
She said she had been “stunned” by the death of a one-day-old twin boy she allegedly murdered 90 minutes into her shift, saying it had been a “complete shock”.
The nurse said she had searched for the boy’s mother on Facebook the morning after his death out of “curiosity”.
“To walk into the unit that evening and the first time to have met those parents, be in that awful situation – I think it was just curiosity to see the people behind that awful event that had happened,” she told the jury.
Letby is alleged to have murdered the boy, who can only be named as Child A, and attempting to kill his twin sister, Child B, by injecting air into their bloodstreams while working night shifts in June 2015. She denies both counts.
The prosecution alleges that Letby harmed Child A, who was born six weeks premature, from about 30 minutes into her shift. He died within 90 minutes of Letby coming on duty, the jury has been told.
The nurse, giving evidence beside two prison officers, said she had been “just stunned” when he suddenly deteriorated after being healthy and stable earlier in the day.
“It was complete shock for all of us. It felt like we walked through the door into this awful situation,” she said.
“It was the first time I’d met [Child A], the first time I’d met his parents. It was a huge shock.”
The trial continues.
