Lucy Letby may have murdered THREE more babies: Prosecution’s main expert witness says he fears the nurse killed several other infants and tried to harm as many as 15 more
Lucy Letby may have killed three more babies and tried to murder another 15, a pediatrician claimed at her trial yesterday.
Dewi Evans, who gave expert testimony against the neonatal nurse, raised new concerns about the deaths of children who were not part of the prosecution’s case.
He also has suspicions about the cases of five children who survived, including one who may have been poisoned with insulin. And he told the Mail’s Trial of Lucy Letby podcast that he had identified a further ten surviving children who could have been harmed by Letby.
In all of them, the breathing tubes were likely tampered with by the killer nurse whose “modus operandi changed over time,” he said.
Letby, 33, was convicted last month of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six more at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit.
Letby (pictured), 33, was convicted last month of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six more at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit
Dewi Evans (pictured), who gave expert testimony against the neonatal nurse, raised new concerns about the deaths of children who were not part of the prosecution’s case
She injected children with air, gave them too much milk and abused them. She received a life sentence. Last week, her legal team applied for permission to appeal the convictions.
Dr. Evans said: ‘Initially I looked at 32 cases and there are seven (which were not part of the trial) that require further investigation.
‘These babies had diseases that were life-threatening and three of them died – but we need to look at them to see if they too have been compromised. They were evil, so it may be impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt whether they were victims of the harm inflicted.
‘But there are seven issues that concern me and that we need to look at more thoroughly. I will be liaising with Cheshire Police to bring these matters to their attention.”
Dr. Evans said that after Letby’s arrest in July 2018, he was asked to review the notes of another 48 babies — who were not included in the trial — and had concerns about as many as 18 of them.
“They go back to 2012, although most date from June 2014 – 12 months before the first fatality,” he said.
‘I have found several cases that are highly suspicious where an endotracheal tube – which is placed down a baby’s throat when he needs breathing support – has moved and come out.
‘These tubes can come loose accidentally, but for so many tubes to come out is very, very unusual, especially in what I consider to be a good piece of equipment.
Mr Evans also has suspicions about the cases of five children who survived, including one who may have been poisoned with insulin. And he told the Mail’s Trial of Lucy Letby podcast that he had identified a further ten surviving children who could have been harmed by Letby.
Letby injected children with air, gave them too much milk and abused them while she worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital (pictured). She received a life sentence. Last week, her legal team applied for permission to appeal the convictions
‘I suspect these pipes were deliberately moved. Of the 18, up to ten babies could be at risk. As far as I know, they survived without suffering any long-term damage.”
Dr. Evans, the prosecution’s key expert who gave evidence on 17 different occasions during the 10-month trial, added: ‘One thing we can be reasonably certain of is that Lucy Letby didn’t show up for work one day and decided to give an injection. a baby with air in their bloodstream.
“I think the modus operandi evolved over time and I think the repositioning of the tube before the air embolism was probably something that she did.”
During Letby’s trial at Manchester Crown Court, the jury was told she had completed training on air embolism and drug injecting just weeks before killing her first victim, Baby A, on June 8, 2015. his bloodstream.
All by Dr. Evans assessed babies were born to the countess, although he said he had heard ‘anecdotal’ concerns about babies with displaced breathing tubes at Liverpool Women’s Hospital – cases police were investigating. Letby did an internship there in 2012 and 2015.
Dr. Evans said he also suspected that at least one other baby, whose notes noted he had high insulin levels, might have been poisoned by Letby around November 2015.
Dr. Evans said that after Letby’s arrest in July 2018, he was asked to review the notes of another 48 babies – who were not included in the trial – and had concerns about as many as 18 babies.
During Letby’s trial at Manchester Crown Court, the jury was told she had completed training on air embolism and drug injecting just weeks before killing her first victim, Baby A, on June 8, 2015. his bloodstream
All by Dr. Evans assessed babies were born to the Countess (pictured), although he said he had heard ‘anecdotal’ concerns about babies with displaced breathing tubes at Liverpool Women’s Hospital – cases police were investigating. Letby did an internship there in 2012 and 2015
This was ‘in the middle’ of the other two insulin cases: Baby F, who was poisoned in August 2015, and Baby L, who deliberately had insulin injected into his IV in April 2016.
Dr. Evans described the inability of doctors on the ward to appreciate the significance of Baby F’s blood test results as a ‘terrible tragedy’.
“If they had acted on that, all the other deaths and collapses would have stopped,” he said.
Three more babies died and another four were injured by Letby over the next ten months, before she was finally removed from the ward in June 2016.
Cheshire Police are examining the medical records of 4,000 babies admitted to the neonatal units at the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital during the ‘footprint’ of Letby’s five-year nursing career.
Their investigation, codenamed Operation Hummingbird, is ongoing and they have not ruled out Letby being accused of more crimes.
After the trial, sources told The Guardian that detectives had identified about 30 other babies, in addition to the 17 who took part in the trial, who may have been harmed by Letby. They all survived.
Dr. Evans urged detectives to look closely at the babies’ medical notes named on 257 nursing transfer sheets discovered in Letby’s home after her arrest.
Her lawsuit found that the sheets were to be disposed of as confidential waste at the end of each shift at the hospital.
Listen to The Mail’s podcast on Lucy Letby here.