Lucy Letby’s ‘best friend’ last night insisted the baby killer nurse was innocent of killing seven babies and harming six others.
Janet Cox, who worked alongside the 33-year-old in the neonatal ward at Countess of Chester Hospital, said she would continue to support Britain’s most prolific serial child killer as her legal team considered an appeal.
After ten months of evidence, the jury learned how Letby injected youths with air and poisoned them with insulin. She was sentenced to 14 life sentences earlier this week.
Ms Cox was speaking briefly at the front door of her semi-detached house in Ellesmere Port on the Wirral when approached by MailOnline.
When asked if she still believed in her friend’s innocence, she replied “Yes,” but refused to elaborate.
For most of Letby’s trial, Ms Cox sat next to the killer’s parents, John, 77, and Susan, 63, in the public gallery of bench 7 of Manchester Crown Court.
Janet Cox (left) working with Letby in the neonatal unit at Countess of Chester Hospital
Jurors listened to ten months of evidence linking Letby to the deaths. But despite this, Mrs. Cox struggles to come to terms with her friend’s guilt
Their seats were across the courtroom, where police officers and relatives of Letby’s minor victims took their own places to listen to the overwhelming evidence against her.
This meant they were behind the murder as she gave evidence in her defense and under cross-examination by Nick Johnson KC.
On those occasions, Letby sat on a chair in the courtroom, sandwiched between two female prison guards and surrounded by archives of evidence.
Mrs. Cox was with her friends when the jury delivered their first verdict, and again when they found her guilty of the first of seven murders.
On that occasion she consoled Mrs Letby as she left the court sobbing and crying: ‘This can’t be true’.
A man at Ms Cox’s house previously told the Telegraph that the pair were ‘best friends’.
Letby (right, with Cox) maintained her claims of innocence at her trial and refused to appear in the dock for her conviction on Monday
Mrs Cox was with her friends when the jury delivered its first verdict, and again when they found her guilty of the first of seven murders
Letby with Mrs. Cok and a group of friends at a social event
In the run-up to the trial, some of Letby’s friends remained loyal to her, and that support continues even after her conviction.
The nurse maintained her claims of innocence at her trial and refused to appear in the dock for her sentencing on Monday.
The killer’s attorney, Ben Myers KC, suggested she was an innocent medic who was made a scapegoat by a so-called “Gang of Four” pediatricians on the ward.
Hospital managers accepted her formal complaint against the “gang,” and at one point called on them to offer her a written apology.
They repeatedly refused to call the police, not doing so until just before the end of Letby’s years-long killing spree.
Their support of the killer kept her on the ward long after pediatricians lobbied for her removal.
As a result, the death toll continued to rise – a fact that will be a major focus of the eventual investigation into the deliberate killing campaign she waged “in plain sight” of her colleagues.
Doctors and nurses alike desperately tried to save the lives of babies she had cynically and catastrophically sabotaged.
Mrs. Cox isn’t the only friend, colleague or Letby who supports her, despite overwhelming evidence of her guilt.
Police investigations revealed a trove of grim memories Letby kept from her victims – and a post-it note that read, “I’m bad, I did this”
Dr. Gilby “rapidly came to the conclusion” that not addressing complaints about Letby “more likely than not” resulted in infant deaths. Lucy Letby is pictured working at the Countess of Chester Hospital
“There are still a small number of people in the Countess of Chester’s neonatal unit who believe she is innocent,” a source said. The times.
“They find it hard to believe she could have done it because they got the story for so long that Letby was blamed on consultants making excuses for their own mistakes.”
An old friend of Letby’s, Dawn Howe, is among those who refuse to accept the jury’s decision that the nurse is a baby killer.
Speaking to the BBC’s Panorama programme, Ms Howe, 33, said: ‘Unless Lucy turned around and said ‘I’m guilty’ I’ll never believe she’s guilty.
“We know she couldn’t have done anything she’s been accused of, so we stand by her without a doubt.
“I grew up with Lucy and nothing I’ve ever seen or seen from Lucy has made me believe for a moment that she’s capable of what she’s accused of doing.
“It’s the most deviant accusation you could ever make against Lucy.
“Think of your most kind, gentle, gentle friend and think he’s accused of harming babies.”
She also accused the police of “trying to build a case, find someone guilty to blame someone,” while maintaining Letby’s innocence.
Conspirators who believe Letby has been wrongfully convicted have now launched a campaign to have her released.
For most of Letby’s trial, Ms Cox sat next to the killer’s parents, John, 77, and Susan, 63, in the public gallery of bench 7 of Manchester Crown Court.
Sarrita Adams, a US science adviser who has followed the trial, will soon launch a fundraising campaign to undo what she calls “the greatest miscarriage of justice Britain has ever witnessed”.
In his comments on the sentencing, Mr Justice Goss said colleagues at the Countess of Chester Hospital were forced to ‘think the unthinkable’ when they realized that Letby was deliberately hurting babies.
Police searches of Letby’s home revealed grim memories of her victims: mountains of transfer notes stolen from the hospital, a diary listing the dates babies died, a post-it note reading “I am bad, I did this’.
Mr Justice Goss said: ‘I am convinced that you started keeping these documents after the first offenses in June 2015 as morbid accounts of the horrific events surrounding your victims’ collapses and what you had done to them.
“Some of your victims were only a day or a few days old. They were all extremely vulnerable.
“By their nature and number, such murders and attempted murders by a neonatal nurse entrusted to care for them are offenses of very exceptional severity.
“This was a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of infanticide involving the tiniest and most vulnerable children, knowing that your actions caused considerable physical suffering and would cause untold mental suffering.
“You showed no remorse. There are no mitigating factors.’