A mum "interrupted" alleged serial killer Lucy Letby trying to murder her baby and was told "trust me, I'm a nurse", a jury heard today.
Lucy Letby, 32, is on trial at Manchester Crown Court accused of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of another 10, including some on more than one occasion, at the Countess of Chester Hospital. She denies seven counts of murder and 15 of attempted murder.
The jury has been told Letby allegedly used various methods to attack the babies, including using intravenous tubes to inject air into their bloodstreams and poisoning their feed with insulin. The Band 5 nurse is also said to have searched for the families of the babies she attacked on Facebook.
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Nicholas Johnson, KC, prosecuting, is in the process of opening the case against Letby by giving a summary of the what the Crown suggests happened to each individual child, whose identities are protected by reporting restrictions.
One baby, referred to as Child E, was attacked in front of his mum in August 2015, the jury heard. Child E had been born prematurely but was stable and had taken a feed of milk. At around 9pm one night the boy's mum visited her son for a feed and found Letby by his side.
Mr Johnson said: "We say that she interrupted Lucy Letby who was attacking (Child E), although she did not realise it at the time." When the mother arrived her son was "distressed" and bleeding from the mouth, the court heard.
The mother recalled how Letby tried to reassure her, Mr Johnson said, and told her a registrar would review the youngster's condition and she should leave the unit. Mr Johnson said: "'Trust me, I'm a nurse'. That's what she told the mother. We suggest she was fobbed off by Lucy Letby."
Child E went on to suffer significant blood loss later in the evening, with a treating registrar saying he had never encountered such a large bleed in a small baby. Hours later, Child E's heart-rate dropped and he continued to bleed during resuscitation attempts, losing around 25% of the blood in his body.
Mr Johnson said Child E died in the early hours, and later Letby made "fraudulent" nursing notes which were "false, misleading and designed to cover her tracks". The jury heard Letby went on to show a "very unusual interest" in Child E's family, with social media searches on them two days after the youngster's death and again on numerous occasions in the following months, including "even on Christmas Day".
Independent medical experts later called in to review the unusually high number of deaths and collapses at the neo-natal unit concluded the cause of death was an injection of air into the bloodstream - the same cause of death as Child A and the same cause of Child B's near fatal collapse.
The jury were also told another baby, Child C, was killed by the same method six days after the attacks on Children A and B, and when alarms on his monitors alerted other nurses to his condition, Letby was found standing by his incubator. Mr Johnson told the jury that was the third time in the space of a week Letby was found next to a baby after its collapse, showing what he described as her "constant, malevolent presence".
The jury also heard about the cases of Child D; allegedly murdered by Letby by an injection of air; Child G, who survived three attempts on her life by the same method, and Child F; who survived an attempted poisoning with insulin.
The jury heard Child F was prescribed a TPN (total parenteral nutrition) bag of fluids and later suffered an unexpected drop in his blood sugar levels and surge in his heart rate. Checks on his insulin levels were carried out which showed, "conclusive evidence" someone had poisoned him, the jury was told.
Mr Johnson said no other baby on the neo-natal unit was prescribed insulin so Child F could not have received the drug intended for some other baby by negligence.
According to the prosecution, Letby had injected insulin into the TPN bag before it was hung up to give to Child F. Mr Johnson said: "You know who was in the room and you know from the records, who hung the bag. It can't have been an accident."
He told the jury there was only one, "credible candidate" for the poisoner: "The same person who was present at all the unexplained collapses and deaths at the Countess of Chester Hospital on the neo-natal unit."
The trial continues.
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