Lucy Letby denies being in nursery at time baby girl collapsed

Lucy Letby, 33, is said to have deliberately dislodged the infant’s breathing tube shortly before a consultant walked into nursery one at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit.

Giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court earlier this year, Dr Ravi Jayaram said he saw Letby standing by the incubator of Child K as her blood oxygen levels plummeted.

No alarms were sounding, he said, and he recalled the nurse was “doing nothing”.

On Tuesday, Letby said she was feeding another baby in a different nursery, nursery two, at or shortly before 3.50am on February 17, 2016.

Her barrister Ben Myers KC asked: “Did you interfere with (Child K’s) tube?

“No,” replied Letby.

Mr Myers said: “Was there a time when you were in the nursery and Ravi Jayaram came in and he found you to be standing there close to (Child K)?”

Letby said: “No.”

Mr Myers said: “Do you recall any incident when you were present while (Child K) deteriorated and Ravi Jayaram was involved at about 3.50am?”

Letby said: “No I don’t.”

Mr Myers said: “Or at any other time?”

Letby said: “No.”

Mr Myers said: “Did Ravi Jayaram ever say to you what is going on here?

The defendant repeated: “No.”

Mr Myers said: “Did he say to you why the alarm is not going?”

Letby said: “No, I don’t recall any conversation with Dr Jayaram that night at all.”

The defendant told the court she was feeding another baby at “roughly” 3.30am, which involved changing a nappy and giving 55ml of milk via a nasogastric tube.

Mr Myers asked: “How long would that take?”

Letby said: “Around half an hour potentially.”

Mr Myers said: “What’s the quickest it could be?”

Letby said: “Depending on the baby, 20 minutes maybe.”

Mr Myers said: “The longest?”

Letby said: “Anything up to an hour.”

Mr Myers said: “How long would it be in the case of this baby?”

Letby said: “I can’t put a definitive time on it, but I would say 15 to 20 minutes.”

Mr Myers said: “If that is ongoing do you have any reason to be in nursery one at or shortly before 3.50am?”

Letby replied: “No, I was with this baby.”

The Crown say Letby struck less than two hours after the extremely premature youngster was born weighing 692 grammes.

The infant’s designated nurse Joanne Williams said she left a “stable” Child K to update her parents on the labour ward, the court has heard.

Dr Jayaram said Ms Williams had told him that Letby was keeping an eye on Child K while she was away.

He told the court that he felt “uncomfortable” because of Letby’s “association” to a “number of unexpected and unusual events” by this point and decided to check the room.

Dr Jayaram said he could not understand why Child K’s breathing tube had dislodged.

Letby told the court it was not unusual for such a tube to move with an active baby.

She said: “It does happen.”

Letby said she had no recollection of Child K being on the unit, apart from noting it was “unusual” for a baby to be born at the Countess of Chester at just 25 weeks gestation.

The court has heard Letby made a Facebook search for Child K’s surname in April 2018.

Mr Myers said: “Can you help us with why it is that two years later you are looking at this on Facebook?”

Letby said: “You still think of patients that you cared for.”

Mr Myers said: “Any particular reason here?”

Letby said: “Not that I can recall now.”

Child K was transferred later that day on February 17 to Wirral’s Arrowe Park Hospital, where she died three days later.

The prosecution does not allege Letby caused her death. The defendant, from Hereford, denies the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of 10 others, including Child K, between June 2015 and June 2016.

Later in court, Letby told jurors “killing babies” was not on her mind as she and friends looked forward to a holiday abroad.

Letby is alleged to have attempted to murder a baby boy at the Countess of Chester Hospital a day before she flew out to Ibiza with a colleague and a friend.

It is alleged she went on to murder a newborn triplet boy on her first shift back following her return from the Spanish island – and then killed his brother the next day.

She agreed with Mr Myers that the allegations against her are of the “most grave nature”.

She said that in June 2016 she had a “busy, active life” outside of work, with “lots of” hobbies and friends.

Mr Myers asked her about an exchange of WhatsApp messages with a nurse, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, on June 13 in which they referenced packing and joked about appearing on Love Island.

Letby told Manchester Crown Court: “So myself, (the nurse) and the other person were going on holiday together.”

Mr Myers said: “How did you feel?”

Letby said: “We were excited. We were looking forward to it.”

Mr Myers said: “Are those people your friends?”

“Yes,” said Letby.

Mr Myers said: “And this is what you are chatting about?”

“Yes,” said Letby.

Mr Myers said: “You were going to have to go to work before you went away, how were you feeling about going to work?”

Letby said: “I was happy to go to work but I was also looking forward to time off and going on holiday.”

Mr Myers said: “In the middle of that were you planning on killing babies?”

Letby said: “No.”

Mr Myers said: “That’s what the prosecution are saying.”

Letby said: “That didn’t happen.”

Mr Myers said: “Is that what was on your mind?”

“No,” said Letby.

Letby denied first attacking Child N, a baby boy born with the blood clotting disorder haemophilia, in the early hours of June 3.

She said she was unaware his blood oxygen levels had dipped during her shift before he made a relatively swift recovery.

Twelve days later Child N had a profound deterioration at 7.15am on June 15, the court heard.

Letby said she looked after Child N on June 14 and did not recall any concerns with him but his condition had deteriorated by the time she arrived for duty the next morning.

She said she went to nursery three to talk to colleague Jennifer Jones-Key, who “was a good friend of mine”.

Letby said she was stood in the doorway – as her colleague tended to another baby in the room – when Child N’s monitor alarm sounded.

She said: “I went over and found him to be mottled and not breathing properly.

“He was a blueish colour. Straightaway I started Neopuffing (breathing support) and called for help.

“(Child N) recovered from that episode within minutes and the same thing then happened again.

“He dropped his saturations, his colour was not good and he was mottled.”

She said a registrar decided that Child N needed to be moved to nursery one, the intensive care room.

Mr Myers asked: “How long had you been on the unit?”

Letby said: “Minutes. I had just got to nursery three when this happened.”

Letby was on holiday from June 16 to June 22, the court heard.

On successive days on June 23 and 24 she is alleged to have murdered two triplet brothers, Child O and P.

The trial continues on Wednesday, May 17.