Lucy Letby accused of faking medical entries to cover tracks

Prosecutor Nick Johnson suggested on Wednesday, May 24, she had “deliberately mis-stated” the time that one of her alleged victims collapsed.

Letby, 33, denies overfeeding Child G and injecting her with milk during a night shift at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit in September 2015.

The alleged incident took place in the early hours of September 7 on the girl’s 100th day of life.

Earlier, nursing staff – including Letby – had helped put up a banner on the unit to celebrate the milestone for the infant who was born weighing just 535 grams.

Letby said she was at the nursing station with a colleague when she heard “retching” and entered nursery two to find vomit on a cotside chair and on the floor.

The court has heard that Child G’s designated nurse, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had fed milk to the asleep infant at 2am via a nasogastric tube.

The nurse, said to have been Letby’s “best friend”, then went on a hour-long break.

Letby timed the projectile vomit at 2.15am in her notes but Mr Johnson suggested it was actually “much closer” to 2.30am.

The prosecutor said: “I am suggesting this is one of the occasions where you have misrepresented events in the nursing notes. You are deliberately putting the time of the event forward to 2.15am.”

Letby said: “No, I disagree.”

Mr Johnson said: “The reason you have done this is so that there is an obvious link to your best friend feeding the child and the vomiting because you wanted to create the impression the two events were linked?”

“No," said Letby.

Mr Johnson said: “Whereas in fact the reason why (Child G) had collapsed … is that you deliberately overfed her?”

Letby said: “That’s not true.”

She told the court that her best friend may have overfed the infant but conceded it was “not a realistic possibility”.

Letby denied putting milk into a syringe and then using the plunger to force air and milk into Child G.

Mr Johnson said Child G collapsed again about 45 minutes later when Letby had taken over the designated nurse duties.

He said a doctor tried to intubate Child G but noted “blood-stained fluid coming out through the trachea between the vocal cords”.

Mr Johnson suggested to Letby: “You had inserted something into this airway.”

Letby said: “No.”

Mr Johnson said: “And have caused the bleeding as you did with many other children?”

Letby replied: “No, that’s not true.”

The prosecutor said further deteriorations followed at 5.30am and 6am, following which 100ml of air or milk was aspirated from the child’s stomach.

Mr Johnson asked: ”How much air did you put down?”

Letby said: “I didn’t put any air down.”

She told the court that she returned to the unit later that evening to “sign for some documentation”.

Mr Johnson said: “You went to visit (Child G), didn’t you?”

Letby said: “No, I didn’t visit (Child G).”

Mr Johnson said: “You were looking for an opportunity to finish her off.”

“No,” said Letby.

Letby is also accused of attempting to murder Child G on two more occasions on September 21.

Child G vomited again after a feed from Letby documented at 9.15am, the court heard.

Mr Johnson accused her of altering the child’s temperature reading on an observation chart.

He said: “Did you cook the chart to make it look as if she was declining before the vomit?”

“No,” said Letby.

Mr Johnson said: “It’s not an innocent coincidence to see that (Child G) vomited and had to have a lot of milk removed from her in the hour or so after you documented feeding her?”

Letby said: “Yes it is.”

She denied later that day “taking an opportunity to sabotage” Child G when she was left behind a screen by doctors.

Mr Johnson said: “You took advantage of a situation that presented itself?”

“No,” said Letby.

Letby, from Hereford, denies the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of 10 others between June 2015 and June 2016.