Lucy Letby took photo of sympathy card sent to parents of girl she ‘killed on fourth attempt’

Neonatal nurse Lucy Letby told detectives she took photographs of a condolence card because she wanted to remember the kind words she’d written to a baby’s grief-stricken parents.

Letby, 33, penned her message only a few hours before relatives gathered for the funeral of Baby I – an infant she allegedly killed in October, 2015, at the fourth attempt.

She wrote: ‘There are no words to make this time any easier. It was a really privilege (sic) to care for (Baby I) and get to know you as a family – a family who always put (Baby I) first and did everything possible for her.

‘She will always be a part of your lives and we will never forget her. Thinking of you today and always – sorry I cannot be there to say goodbye. Lots of love Lucy x’

Today the jury at Manchester Crown Court was told that detectives asked Letby about the card when they interviewed her in the aftermath of her arrest in July 2018.

Neonatal nurse Lucy Letby (pictured), 33, wrote a sympathy card only hours before relatives gathered for the funeral of Baby I – an infant she allegedly killed in October, 2015. Letby denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder a further ten

Neonatal nurse Lucy Letby (pictured), 33, wrote a sympathy card only hours before relatives gathered for the funeral of Baby I – an infant she allegedly killed in October, 2015. Letby denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder a further ten

Neonatal nurse Lucy Letby (pictured), 33, wrote a sympathy card only hours before relatives gathered for the funeral of Baby I – an infant she allegedly killed in October, 2015. Letby denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder a further ten

A diary, along with a Post-it note which was found inside the diary, recovered from a chest of drawers at the home of Lucy Letby

A diary, along with a Post-it note which was found inside the diary, recovered from a chest of drawers at the home of Lucy Letby

A diary, along with a Post-it note which was found inside the diary, recovered from a chest of drawers at the home of Lucy Letby

She explained: ‘I often take photographs of cards I’ve sent, even birthday cards’.

An officer asks why she had done so on this occasion, and she replied: ‘It was upsetting, and I think it was nice to remember the kind words I felt I’d shared with that family. And as I say, I take photos of lots of birthday cards I send’.

Letby went on to deny knowing in advance that the same baby would be lying pale in her ‘hot’ cot shortly after 3am on October 13, 2015, because she had just attacked her.

The interviewing officers put it to her that she a combination of poor lighting and a ‘tent-like’ canopy over the top half of the cot would have made it impossible. She insisted she could see because as the nurses entered the room one of them had put the light on.

Earlier in the trial another nurse, Ashleigh Hudson, broke down in tears as she recalled Letby telling her the baby looked pale – even though she was standing six feet away.

When Miss Hudson went to the infant she found her in ‘quite poor condition’ and needing urgent care.

Baby I had been ‘very stable’ 15 minutes earlier when she had stepped away from Nursery 2 to help a colleague in the intensive care Nursery 1 of the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Unaware that the infant was unwell, Nurse Hudson returned to the nursery but did not immediately examine her. Instead, she began preparing milk for her with her back to the cot.

Letby, originally from Hereford, denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder a further ten (pictured: April 2016 entries in a diary)

Letby, originally from Hereford, denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder a further ten (pictured: April 2016 entries in a diary)

Letby, originally from Hereford, denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder a further ten (pictured: April 2016 entries in a diary)

She told the court: ‘Lucy was in the doorway. We were talking…(then) she said she thought (Baby) I looked pale.

While interviewing Letby a detective suggested she and Nurse Hudson had been stood together in the doorway, with the alleged killer turning to her colleague and saying the infant looked pale.

Letby replied: ‘No, I remember us both going into the nursery together…From memory we were both inside the nursery. I think we put the lights on as we went into the room’.

The officer asks how she could see from the doorway that Baby I was pale.

Letby replied: ‘Maybe I spotted something that Ashleigh didn’t. I’m more experienced than her.

‘And there are varying degrees of paleness – and Baby I was a pale baby anyway’.

She added: ‘There’s always a level of light. She (Baby I) is still facing outwards towards the door. There’s still light coming from the main corridor’.

The officer pressed her on the matter, saying that Nurse Hudson ‘could tell something was completely wrong with (Baby I). She was not breathing properly, she looked dead’.

Letby replied: ‘She didn’t look dead’.

There was always a gap in the structure of the canopy, and always a degree of natural light that would fall onto the cot. ‘I would have been able to see her face, or her hands if she had her hands out’.

The detective suggests the truth was that she knew the baby would be pale ‘because you had just attacked her’.

‘No’, said Letby.

She later denied having repeatedly attacked the baby prior to her eventual death on October 23.

Letby, originally from Hereford, denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder a further ten. She denies all the charges.

Letby is currently on trial at Manchester Crown Court (pictured), which is set to resume tomorrow

Letby is currently on trial at Manchester Crown Court (pictured), which is set to resume tomorrow

Letby is currently on trial at Manchester Crown Court (pictured)

The court also heard that Letby cried in a police interview as she recalled the ‘devastating’ deaths of two triplets within the space of 24 hours.

‘It was just devastating,’ she told a detective before breaking down.

A few moments later she said she had put Baby O and his brother, Baby P, top and tail together in a cold cot so they could be with their parents.

The couple had then asked her to take photos of them as part of a memory box.

Their surviving triplet was later transferred to the Liverpool Women’s Hospital after they begged the transport team originally sent to collect Baby P.

‘It was a particularly traumatic time,’ said Letby. ‘The staff, we all spoke about it at the time. And we discussed it with the transport team as well at the end of the shift’.

Letby denied telling a nursing colleague she found it ‘boring’ to work in the outside nurseries away from babies in intensive care.

She also said she had no recollection of saying of Baby P: ‘He’s not leaving here alive, is he?’

Similarly, she did not recall Stephen Brearey, the senior paediatrician on the unit, suggesting she take the weekend off because of the trauma.

‘I was due to go on annual leave after the triplets, so I’d have been off anyway. I don’t recall the conversation’.

Elsewhere in the interviews Letby denied harming both Baby J and Baby M so they would be moved into the nursery where she was working.

The trial resumes on Thursday.

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