‘Killer nurse’ Lucy Letby took photo of card from parents as memento
The British nurse accused of killing seven infants in her care testified Tuesday that she photographed a card she got from the parents of two of her alleged victims so she had “something to remember” from the ordeal.
Lucy Letby, 33, is on trial in the deaths of the seven babies and the attempted killing of 10 others in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Manchester between June 2015 and June 2016.
She was questioned in court Tuesday about a photograph she took of a card from the parents of two of her alleged victims, twin boys referred to as “Child E” and “Child F” in the case, SkyNews reported.
“It was something I wanted to remember. I quite often take photographs of cards I have sent and received,” she told her lawyer, Ben Myers, of the card, which she photographed at the nurses’ station.
Child E and Child F died in Letby’s unit in August 2015. Prosecutors claim that the former nurse deliberately killed both children through a fatal injection of air into their bloodstream and insulin poisoning.
Letby also testified about why she searched the twins’ bereaved mother on Facebook nine times between their deaths and January 2016.
“Searching for people on Facebook is something I would do. Quite often, [the twins’ mother] was on my mind,” she explained.
Earlier Tuesday, Letby denied a former colleague’s claim that she unplugged the breathing tube from an extremely premature infant in February 2016.
“I don’t recall any conversation with [the pediatric consultant] at all that night,” Letby told Myers of the incident, which is the subject of her ninth attempted-murder charge.
The infant girl – identified in court as “Child K” – ultimately died after being transferred to another hospital. Letby is not charged in her death.
Search records revealed that Letby googled Child K in April 2018, two years after the baby left the unit.
“You still think of patients you cared for,” she insisted, while acknowledging that she “can’t recall” the exact reason for the search.
Letby’s recollection of Child K came one day after she alleged that the Countess of Chester’s neonatal floor was unsafe because of staffing issues, The Guardian reported.
“A lot of staff were drained physically and emotionally. The unit was very busy, lots of people were doing additional shifts and changing shifts at the last minute, and it did start to have an effect on everybody,” she said of the working conditions.
Earlier this month, the University of Chester graduate sobbed while describing how the bombshell case impacted her life.
“It was just the most, the scariest thing I’ve ever been through,” she said of her first arrest in July 2018, which was followed by two more before she was finally charged in 2020.
Letby called the accusations against her “sickening.
“My job was my life. I can’t put into words, it’s just — my whole world just stopped,” she lamented through tears.
