A nurse accused of multiple murders and attempted murders of babies has entered the witness box for the first time during her trial. Lucy Letby was today questioned in court, seven months on from the start of proceedings at Manchester Crown Court. The 33-year-old is alleged to have murdered five boys and two girls, and attempted to murder another five boys and five girls, between June 2015 and June 2016. Letby, from Hereford, denies all the allegations. It is alleged that Letby used various means to target the infants, including injections of air into their system and insulin poisoning. The prosecution says the nurse was a “constant malevolent presence” in their care at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital. READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News
WhatsApp community On Tuesday morning (May 2), Letby, wearing a black top and black trousers, walked from the dock and across the courtroom to answer the allegations as her defence case started. Several rows behind, her parents, John Letby, 76, and Susan Letby, 62, looked on – as did family members of the alleged victims on the other side of the public gallery. A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of surviving and deceased children allegedly attacked by Letby, and prohibits identifying parents or witnesses connected with the children. Letby's barrister, Ben Myers KC, asked her: “Over the period of 2015 and 2016 we are looking at the babies on this indictment, could you put a figure on the number of babies you cared for in that period?” Letby told the court: “It would be hundreds.” Mr Myers asked: “Did you care for them?”, to which Letby replied: “Yes.” Asked if she ever wanted to hurt any of them, she said: “No, that’s completely against being what a nurse is.” The Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester (Image: PA) Letby said she was first informed she was being blamed for the deaths of babies in a letter from the Royal College of Nursing in September 2016. Asked how this made her feel, Letby said: “It was sickening. I just could not believe it. It was devastating. I don’t think you could be accused of anything worse than that.” She said that after she was accused of being responsible for harming babies she felt very isolated and her mental health deteriorated. She said she was prescribed anti-depressants by her GP, which she is still taking. Mr Myers asked the defendant how bad the "negative feelings" got, to which she said: “There were times when I did not want to live. I thought of killing myself.” Asked if she had done anything wrong, Letby told the court: "No." Pressed on why she thought about killing herself if that was the case, Letby said: “Because of what was being inferred.” Mr Myers questioned Letby about a post-it note that the court previously heard had been found at her home in Chester following her arrest in July 2018. The court had heard that she thought she had written the note two years earlier when she was removed from the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester. The post-it note
police found in Lucy Letby's home (Image: Crown Prosecution Service) Referring to the Post-it note, Mr Myers said to Letby: “You wrote ‘I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough’. Had you done something intentionally to harm or kill them?” Letby replied: “No.” Mr Myers said: “Why did you think you may not be good enough?” The defendant said: “Because that was the suggestion throughout … that I had been removed from the unit, that I had done something wrong. That was what was being insinuated to me.” Mr Myers then questioned Letby on why she wrote "I am evil I did this", to which Letby said: “Because I felt at the time I had done something wrong and I thought I’m such an awful, evil person … that I had made mistakes and not known.” Asked what she thought she had done, Letby said: “That somehow I had been incompetent and I had done something wrong to affect these babies. I felt I must be responsible in some way.” Letby told the court that she writes notes "regularly" as a way of expressing her thoughts. Asked how she felt about the note being read in court, she said: “I am a very private person and I didn’t think my note would ever be read.” Letby told the court that she studied a degree in nursing at the University of Chester and was the “first person in her family to go to university”. She said she had "always wanted to work with children". During her studies, she went on numerous work placements, she said, with the majority at the Countess of Chester Hospital, either on the children’s ward or the neo-natal unit. Letby said she qualified as a Band 5 nurse in September 2011. The trial continues. READ NEXT: Driver 'high on cocaine' brings Metrolink line to standstill after 'wedging' car on tracks Burger bar owner speaks of terror as
Gunman strolls in and opens
fire Urgent appeal issued to find missing girl, 14, last seen at Stepping Hill Hospital Teacher shares stark reality of struggling families and covering costs as staff head out on further strike day Local
elections 2023: The key battlegrounds as Greater Manchester prepares to go to the polls