Lucy Letby wrote sympathy card to baby’s grieving parents

The defendant took a photograph on her mobile phone of the card, a few hours ahead of the youngster’s funeral.

Letby, 33, is accused of killing the premature-born infant, known as Child I, in the early hours of October 23, 2015, which the Crown say was the fourth attempt to take her life.

The sympathy card with Lucy Letby's handwriting. (Image: Crown Prosecution Service.)

On Thursday, February 2, Manchester Crown Court was told Letby captured a photograph of the card on the morning of November 10 after she finished a night shift – hours before Child I’s funeral.

She wrote: “There are no words to make this time any easier.

“It was a real priviledge (sic) to care for [Child I] and get to know you as a family – a family who always put [Child 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”

The sympathy card with Lucy Letby's handwriting. (Image: Crown Prosecution Service.)

The card contained the printed message: “Your loved one will be remembered with many smiles.”

The sympathy card was shown as part of a sequence of events to the jury on Thursday. Photos of the card, with the child's name deliberately obscured to prevent the child from being identified, have been released for use by the press.

Opening the prosecution case in October 2022, Nicholas Johnson KC said the defendant later told detectives it was “not normal” for a nurse to send such a card.

She added it was the only time she had done it but it was “not often the nurses got to know a family as well”, he told the court.

Letby, originally from Hereford, denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.