“Devious” nurse Lucy Letby tried to deflect suspicion from herself as “the net was closing”, her trial has heard.

Letby, 33, is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill 10 others on the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital.

She allegedly pumped air into the circulation of several of her victims, which is said to have led to air embolisms in which gas bubbles can block blood supply.

Letby submitted a clinical incident report stating that on June 30, 2016 she noticed a bung had been left off the port of an intravenous line, which could accidentally let air in.

The shift was her last on the unit before she was moved to clerical duties after consultants raised fears to hospital bosses about her presence at a number of collapses, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Days earlier, two triplet boys who she had been caring for had collapsed and died.

In his closing speech to the jury of eight women and four men on Thursday, June 22, prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said: “It is Lucy Letby, we say, getting her defence in first. She knew the net was closing.

“Text messages showed she knew there was going to be an investigation.

“She put in a form that contained a lie and the purpose of putting this in is to create the impression that air embolism could have arisen on the unit as a result of poor practice.

“It is a calculated attempt by a devious woman to deflect suspicion.”

Mr Johnson told jurors they could be sure the report timed at 3pm was false because Letby would have started her shift at 8am and any nurse doing their job properly would not take that long to spot the issue.

When giving evidence, Letby denied the prosecutor’s claim the report was effectively an “insurance policy to cover yourself for accidental air embolism”.

Letby, from Hereford, denies all the allegations said to have taken place between June 2015 and June 2016.

Mr Johnson concluded the prosecution's closing speech by categorising the similarities across the 17 babies' cases.

He said Child A, C, D, G, H [second event], I [third event and fourth event], M, O [twice] and P were all cases where babies had falling oxygen saturations despite good air entry.

He said Child A, B, D, E, I, M, O and H were all cases where unusual skin discolouration was seen on the baby.

He said the premature babies screaming/crying uncharacteristically at time of their collapse were featured in the following cased: Child D, E, I and N.

He said Child B, H, I [first event], M, N, O and P all collapsed shortly after their parents had been to visit. He said the following cases were when babies collapsed shortly after doctors and/or nurses had left the room: Child C, D, G [first event], I [second event and fourth event], K, N [first event], P [third collapse - when doctors were out of the room] and Q [slight variation - when Letby got herself out of the room].

He said Letby participated in inappropriate post-death behaviours in the cases of Child C, I, and O.

He added two children - Child F and Child L - were poisoned by insulin.

He concluded by saying the seven babies who died after 'being sabotaged by Lucy Letby' would otherwise have gone home.

The prosecution's closing speech has now concluded, and Benjamin Myers KC is expected to begin delivering the closing spech for the defence on Friday.

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