Lucy Letby trial: Baby allegedly murdered by nurse stopped breathing ‘without warning’

The baby, referred to as Child C, was born prematurely, weighing 800 grammes, at the Countess of Chester Hospital on June 10, 2015 and taken to the neonatal unit.

He is one of seven babies allegedly killed by the 32-year-old.

In a statement, his mother said after his birth the staff on the unit remained positive about his progress, and she and her husband had a "cautious positivity".

She said: “We weren’t being unrealistic but we could see he was doing all that was expected of him.”

On June 13, the mother, who was staying on a post-natal ward in the hospital following the birth, was awoken by a nurse at 11.20pm and told to go and see her son “urgently”, she said.

She said it was explained to her that his heart rate had suddenly dropped and he had stopped breathing “without warning”.

The court heard the child’s change in condition had been “very sudden and unexpected”.

She said: “Initially I didn’t really take in what was happening and I didn’t take in the severity until I was asked by a neonatal nurse whether I wanted someone to call a priest.

“I remember feeling quite shocked and I asked her if she thought he was going to die, to which she responded, ‘Yes, I think so’.”

The woman said her husband arrived at the hospital, a priest was called and their baby was baptised.

She said: “It was a way in which we were able to validate that he had been here. We wouldn’t have had anything else.”

The woman said after Child C was baptised she was told he had died but when she held him he was still breathing.

When a consultant asked her if she wanted them to continue with CPR she said no, after brain scans had showed extensive changes as he had been deprived of oxygen for quite a long time.

She said: “I just wanted us to be together.”

The court heard she and her husband, who also called their parents to the hospital, stayed with their son until he passed away on the morning of June 14.

The court also heard a statement from her husband who said Letby, who he now recognised from pictures in newspapers, was one of two nurses who took the couple and their son to a family room to be together before he died.

He said while in the room one of the nurses, who he thought could have been Letby, brought a ventilator basket in and said: “You’ve said your goodbyes, do you want me to put him in here?”

He said the comment shocked them as their son was not dead.

He added: “We didn’t want to leave him while he was still alive.”

Letby, 32, is accused of murdering the boy by inserting air into his stomach via a nasogastric tube.

In an opening speech, Ben Myers KC, defending, said Child C was vulnerable, especially to infection, and should have been at a specialist children’s hospital.

The court was also shown text message and Whatsapp evidence recovered from Letby's phone in relation to Child C.

The messages were sent in the aftermath of Child A, a baby boy, dying on June 8, and Child A's twin sister Child B suffering a non-fatal collapse early on June 10.

In the messages, Letby enquired whether there were any spare shifts going, adding: "I think from a confidence point of view I need to take an ITU [intensive treatment unit] baby soon."

During her night shift from June 13-14, she messaged a colleague: "I just keep thinking about [Monday]. Feel like I need to be in [neonatal unit room] 1 to overcome it, but [nursing colleague] said no x"

The colleague responded: "I agree with her, don't think it will help. You need a break from full-on ITU, you need to let it go or it will eat you up..."

Letby responds: "Not the vented baby necessarily, I just feel I need to be in 1, to get the image [of what happened] out of my head." 

Letby, originally from Hereford, denies the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of 10 others between June 2015 and June 2016.

• The trial continues on Thursday, October 27. The Standard will continue to provide live coverage throughout the day.