LUCY Letby’s doctor “boyfriend” is being investigated over alleged information he gave her about a baby she tried to murder.
The killer nurse, 35, is serving 15 life sentences after being convicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven more at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Not known, clear with picture deskLetby’s doctor ‘boyfriend’ is being investigated[/caption]
PAThe married consultant is being probed over information he allegedly gave the killer about Baby N[/caption]
PALetby is serving 15 life sentences after being convicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven more[/caption]
A probe has now been launched into a married consultant, 20 years older than Letby, who can’t be named for legal reasons.
He is accused of sharing information with the nurse about Baby N – an infant Letby was convicted of attempting to murder.
The consultant is also being investigated over his requests to have Letby visit him so she could watch him perform surgeries on infants – up until June 2017.
He organised the trips after Letby had already been moved to an administrative role, in July 2016, over concerns with the volume of baby deaths on her ward.
He had been on shift when the nurse murdered two triplets and allegedly tried to harm a third in June 2016.
In September 2016 he sent her a message in which he called her “the best neonatal nurse” he’d ever worked with.
The pair were found to have exchanged more than 1,300 messages while working as colleagues at Countess of Chester Hospital and the prosecution labelled him Letby’s “boyfriend”.
Jurors at the trial were also told they had gone on London day trips and went out for dinners.
Police found notes in the killers home with his name on them.
One read: “I loved you and I think you knew that … I wanted you to stand by me but you didn’t.”
But both Letby and the doctor denied having a romantic relationship.
A complaint was launched against the consultant by the mother of Baby N.
She alleged the doctor breached confidentiality rules by sharing information about her child with Letby.
She added: “He discussed my son and passed on his condition whilst he was still on the [neonatal unit at Countess of Chester Hospital] and when he had been transferred to [the consultant’s next hospital] due to her attack on him.
“There was no legal basis for him for breaching confidentiality; he also shared confidential emails, which were meant to be between consultants only, with her.”
The public inquiry was told how the killer asked her “boyfriend” whether she had done anything wrong after Baby N was moved to another hospital.
He reassured her that she’d done nothing wrong and offered her support.
The doctor told a public inquiry into the Letby case he was not aware of any mounting suspicions against the nurse at the time.
But he later said he was “misled and maybe manipulated” by the killer so she could get information about babies he later discovered she’d harmed.
The hospital informed him last year it was investigating the “full facts surrounding your judgment, decision-making and actions at that time”.
The probe will look into his involvement with Letby in the care of Baby N, as well as his relationship with her after he left the Countess of Chester.
It will also investigate his access to the baby’s records and if he knew of concerns surrounding Letby at the time.
The investigation was disclosed in a High Court ruling on Thursday in which the doctor successfully argued the hospital had breached his employment contract due of how it proposed to carry out the investigation.
Mr Justice Sheldon ruled the probe must be led by the hospital’s chief medical officer.
Letby has always denied her convictions but lost two attempts last year to challenge them at the Court of Appeal.
Her convictions are now being reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates potential miscarriages of justice.
This comes as three former senior staff at the Countess of Chester have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.
Cheshire police are also conducting a separate investigation into deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies in Chester and at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital where Letby trained from 2012.
The charges Letby has been convicted of in full
Child A, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby injected air intravenously into the bloodstream of the baby boy. COUNT 1 GUILTY.
Child B, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby attempted to murder the baby girl, the twin sister of Child A, by injecting air into her bloodstream. COUNT 2 GUILTY.
Child C, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said Letby forced air down a feeding tube and into the stomach of the baby boy. COUNT 3 GUILTY.
Child D, allegation of murder. The Crown said air was injected intravenously into the baby girl. COUNT 4 GUILTY.
Child E, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby murdered the twin baby boy with an injection of air into the bloodstream and also deliberately caused bleeding to the infant. COUNT 5 GUILTY.
Child F, allegation of attempted murder. Letby was said by prosecutors to have poisoned the twin brother of Child E with insulin. COUNT 6 GUILTY.
Child I, allegation of murder. The prosecution said Letby killed the baby girl at the fourth attempt and had given her air and overfed her with milk. COUNT 12 GUILTY.
Child K, allegation of attempted murder. The prosecution said Letby compromised the baby girl as she deliberately dislodged a breathing tube. COUNT 14 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT AT ORIGINAL TRIAL, NOW GUILTY AFTER RETRIAL
Child L, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said the nurse poisoned the twin baby boy with insulin. COUNT 15 GUILTY.
Child M, allegation of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby injected air into the bloodstream of Child L’s twin brother. COUNT 16 GUILTY.
Child N, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby inflicted trauma in the baby boy’s throat and also injected him with air in the bloodstream. COUNT 17 GUILTY, COUNT 18 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT, COUNT 19 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child O, allegation of murder. Prosecutors say Letby attacked the triplet boy by injecting him with air, overfeeding him with milk and inflicting trauma to his liver with “severe force”. COUNT 20 GUILTY.
Child P, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said the nurse targeted the triplet brother of Child O by overfeeding him with milk, injecting air and dislodging his breathing tube. COUNT 21 GUILTY.
Child Q, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby injected the baby boy with liquid, and possibly air, down his feeding tube. COUNT 22 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT
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