Mum tells of horrifying moment she caught Lucy Letby holding screaming son as he bled from the mouth
A mum has spoken about how she caught Lucy Letby as he murdered her baby son and how that night still "plays through her mind like a film". The heartbroken mum described how her naturally conceived twin sons were "a miracle" after several failed rounds of IVF treatment had led them to starting the process of adoption as an alternative.
But the boys, born seven weeks early, were attacked by the serial killer nurse in August 2015, leaving one dead and the survivor with learning difficulties. The mum of Child E and F explained how Letby had seemed "kind", often hugging and smiling children until she was caught red-handed with her screaming son, the Mirror reports.
She told the Thirlwall Inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall today: "Nine years on I can still play that night through my mind like I’m watching a film.”
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Child E&F’s mum described the moment she brought her son some milk to find Letby with the infant while he screamed and bled from his mouth. She said: "I have never heard a baby crying like that - then I realised it was my baby… I asked Lucy Letby why there was blood around his mouth and why he was bleeding. She seemed very abrasive and didn’t make eye contact with me. I think I caught her off-guard. Something had happened to him for him to be bleeding, stable babies don't bleed.”
Child E later died from a fatal bleed believed to have been caused by Letby interfering with his feeding tube. Fighting back sobs, the brave mum told how it was then evil Letby who then bathed and clothed her dead son she had just killed. The twisted nurse put together a memory box of physical memories of Child E for his parents including moulds of his hands and feet and his bloodstained blanket.
But less than 24 hours after his death Letby then went on to launch her attack on his twin brother, Child F. She tried to kill him by lacing his feeding bag with a large amount of insulin. The baby survived the attack but his parents told how their world had been turned upside down and their happy family memories over the last nine years tainted by their trauma at the Countess of Chester hospital.
Child E&F’s mum revealed she has since retrained as a bereavement counsellor to help other grieving parents. She slammed “empty letters” sent by the hospital’s former medical director Ian Harvey as like a “tick box exercise” that caused further heartbreak.
And she hit out at staff in the neonatal unit who had exchanged text messages about babies in the unit and discussed nights out while working. Advocating for phones to be banned from staff on hospital shifts, she said: “These people are trusted to look after the most precious things that we have and to be distracted by phones, messaging about nights out or babies on the unit feels wrong.”
Speaking of the permanent distrust of medical staff she has been left with, the mum told how she now refuses to leave her children’s side. She said: “My children are not left with anybody, they don’t get left in any medical settings, myself or my husband are always there. The worst ever thing happened to us not once but twice, it isn’t going to happen a third time.”