Letby denies she is ‘calculated’ liar who murdered ‘many children’

Giving her 14th - and expected to be final - day of evidence, Letby, 33, was accused of “deliberately misleading” jurors with a “sob story” over her removal from the job she said she loved.

Letby continued to work at the Countess of Chester Hospital from July 2016 on clerical duties, up to when she was arrested two years later on suspicion of harming babies in her care.

She previously told Manchester Crown Court that she felt “isolated” and “cut off from my nursing family”, as she was told she could not talk to colleagues – apart from two fellow nurses and a doctor who the Crown says she “had a crush on”.

On Friday, June 9, prosecutor Nick Johnson KC presented Letby with a file of messages and photographs from her mobile phone, together with diary entries, from July 2016 onwards.

Mr Johnson asked Letby: “What’s in the document?”

Letby said: “My social life.” Mr Johnson said: “You know it disproves everything you said about contact with friends, don’t you?”

Letby said: “I disagree.”

Mr Johnson said: “We find times, times and more times of you out drinking with other people from the unit?”

“Yes,” said Letby.

Mr Johnson said: “It is peppered with you out socialising with lots of different people on that unit.”

Letby said: “Yes, at times. Yes.”

Mr Johnson said: “All the time really. You had a very, very active social life, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” said Letby.

The prosecutor pointed out an “away day” to London in June 2017 with the doctor “who is not your boyfriend”.

Mr Johnson asked: “Did you stay overnight?”

“No,” said Letby.

“He is a married man. We were not in a relationship at all. It was a friendship.”

The court heard a second planned day out in London with the doctor in September 2017 was called off as he had a medical appointment.

Mr Johnson said: “You were having a good time, weren’t you? Drinking fizz, out on the razzle, going to the races.”

Letby replied: “Yes, there were times over those years when I had good times.”

The court has heard Letby says she wrote a Post-it note after her removal from the unit when she claimed she worried whether she had made mistakes at work.

She wrote: “I am an awful person…. I AM EVIL I DID THIS.”

Mr Johnson said: “You felt like this because you knew you had killed and grievously injured these children.”

“No,” said Letby.

Mr Johnson said: “That’s the truth, isn’t it? You are a murderer.”

“No,” said Letby.

Mr Johnson said: “You have murdered many children.”

Letby said: “I have never murdered a child or harmed any of them.”

Mr Johnson said: “You are a calculated woman aren’t you Miss Letby? You tell lies deliberately, don’t you?”

Letby said: “No.”

Mr Johnson said: “And the reason you tell lies is to get sympathy from people, isn’t it?”

“No,” said Letby.

Mr Johnson went on: “Trying to get attention from people.”

“No,” repeated the defendant.

Mr Johnson said: “And killing these children, you got quite a lot of attention, didn’t you?”

Letby said: “I didn’t kill any children.”

Mr Johnson said: “You are getting quite a lot of attention now, aren’t you.”

Letby did not reply.

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

Letby’s barrister, Ben Myers KC, asked: “Photographs of you out on the razz with your friends. Drinking fizz, going to the races. Did you have a good time?”

Letby said: “Yes. There were times in those years that I has having a good time.”

Mr Myers said: “And you felt like this because you had killed and grievously injured these children?”

“No,” said Letby.

She told her barrister that not all the photographs were about “drinking fizz and going to the races”.

Jurors were shown a photograph of Letby and her father on holiday in July 2016.

In August 2016 Letby photographed her parents on a trip to Cheshire and another picture was taken with her two cousins.

On New Year’s Eve, 2016, Letby wrote on Facebook: “❤️ I'm not the same person I was when 2016 began; but I am fortunate to have my own home.

"I've met some incredible people and I have family and friends who have stood by me regardless - Thank you to those who have kept me smiling. Wishing Every Happiness for us all in 2017”

Mr Myers asked Letby: “What had changed?”

Letby said: “I was not the same person. I had lost my confidence. I was just not the same person.”

Mr Myers said: “Some people may think from looking at these photographs that you were enjoying yourself. How does that tally up with you saying you had lost your confidence?”

Letby replied: “Despite what was going on I had to try and find some degree of quality of life. There are things I enjoyed over the years but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I had changed as a person.”

Letby admitted she did go on to have contact with nursing colleagues following her removal from nursing, but it was “purely social”.

Mr Myers asked: “Did you ever want to hurt any child to be happy?”

“No,” said Letby.

Mr Myers said: “To be excited?”

“No,” said Letby.

Mr Myers said: “Or because you were bored?”

Letby said: “No.”

Mr Myers said: “To get attention from anybody?”

“No,” said Letby.

Mr Myers said: “Have you ever wanted to hurt anybody in your care?”

“No,” said Letby.

Mr Myers said: “How content were you in your life before you began to get the blame for all of this?”

Letby replied: “I had a very happy life.”

The trial was adjourned until next Wednesday (June 14) after Letby completed her evidence.

The Standard will continue to provide live updates from court.