Lucy Letby trial: Mum walked in on nurse as she was killing baby, court hears

Published

3 years ago

October 11, 2022

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A hospital nurse accused of murdering seven babies was interrupted by one of her victim’s mothers as she was fatally attacking her newborn baby, prosecutors say.

Lucy Letby allegedly killed Child E by an injection of air into the bloodstream while working at the neo-natal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said that on the evening of 3 August 2015, Child E’s mother visited her son in the unit.

Mr Johnson said: “We say that she interrupted Lucy Letby who was attacking (Child E), although she did not realise it at the time.”

When the mother arrived, her son was “distressed” and bleeding from the mouth, the court heard.

The mother recalled Letby tried to reassure her, he said, and told her a registrar would review the youngster’s condition and she should leave the unit.

“‘Trust me, I’m a nurse’. That’s what she told (the mother),” said Mr Johnson.

“We suggest she was fobbed off by Lucy Letby.”

Child E went on to suffer significant blood loss, say the Crown, later in the evening, with a treating registrar saying he had never encountered such a large bleed in a small baby.

Following Child E’s death in the early hours of 4 August, the Crown said Letby made “fraudulent” nursing notes which were “false, misleading and designed to cover her tracks”.

Letby, 32, denies seven counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder.

The second day of the prosecution opening at court also heard how Letby went on to show “very unusual interest” in Child E’s family and the families of her other alleged victims.

Mr Johnson said she carried out social media searches on Child E’s family two days after the youngster’s death and again on numerous occasions in the following months, including “even on Christmas Day”.

Jurors heard how the day after allegedly murdering Child E, Letby allegedly used insulin for the first time to poison a baby by trying to murder child E’s twin brother, child F.

Child F was prescribed a TPN (total parenteral nutrition) bag of fluids and later suffered an unexpected drop in his blood sugar levels and surge in heart rate. Checks on his insulin levels were carried out which showed, “conclusive evidence” someone had given child F insulin to poison him.

Mr Johnson said no other baby on the neo-natal unit was prescribed insulin so child F could not have received the drug intended for some other child by negligence.

Mr Johnson said the prosecution allege Letby had injected insulin into the TPN bag before it was hung up to give to the child.

He added: “You know who was in the room and you know from the records, who hung the bag.

“It can’t have been an accident.”

Prosecutors earlier alleged Letby murdered a five-day-old baby by injecting air into his stomach through a nose tube.

She allegedly killed the baby boy, Child C, just six days after murdering for the first time, when she killed another baby boy, Child A, and days later attacked Child B.

Child C died because the air injected into his stomach made him unable to breathe and he suffered a cardiac arrest, Mr Johnson told the jury.

The boy had been born prematurely at 30 weeks on 10 June 2015 weighing only 800 grams, but despite going into intensive care was in good condition.

Five days later, on the nightshift of 14 June, Letby was supposed to be looking after another, more poorly baby, in another room.

But she was the only person in the room when Child C suddenly and unexpectedly collapsed.

Mr Johnson said an independent pathologist – when reviewing the case – concluded Child C died because his breathing became compromised and he suffered a cardiac arrest.

The prosecutor told jurors: “If you are trying to murder a child in a neo-natal unit, it is a fairly effective way of doing it. It doesn’t really leave much trace.”

He said on the afternoon of 14 June, 2015 – hours after Child C died – the defendant searched on Facebook for the youngster’s parents.

Mr Johnson suggested from the timings that this was “one of the first things she did when waking up” after she had earlier finished her shift at about 8am.

He then moved on to detailing the death of Child D, who the Crown say was murdered by Letby with an intentional injection of air into the bloodstream.

Letby sent “many messages” to friends in the wake of Child D’s death and the preceding deaths and collapses in which she suggested they could all clearly be explained as natural causes.

The defendant later told police she could not explain why she had searched on Facebook for Child D’s parents in the aftermath of her death.

She was also asked about another message in which she had referred to an “element of fate” being involved.

Mr Johnson told the jury: “We say, tragically for (Child D) her bad luck or fate was the fact that Lucy Letby was working in the neo-natal unit that night.”

UK

How a cup of coffee led Sky News to a sex offender on the run

Published

3 hours ago

November 8, 2025

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How a cup of coffee led Sky News to a sex offender on the run

It started with a strong espresso in a simple cafe on a side street in north London.

Several Algerian men were inside, a few others were outside on the pavement, smoking.

I’d been told the wanted prisoner might be in Finsbury Park, so I ordered a coffee and asked if they’d seen him.

They were happy to tell me that some of them knew Brahim Kaddour-Cherif – the 24-year-old offender who was on the run.

One of the customers revealed to me that he’d actually seen him the night before.

“He wants to hand himself to police,” the friend said candidly.

This was the beginning of the end of a high-profile manhunt.

The Algerian convicted sex offender had been at large since 29 October, after he was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth in south London.

Within an hour of meeting the friend in the cafe, he had followed myself and camera operator Josh Masters to a nearby street.

We weren’t yet filming – he didn’t want any attention or fuss surrounding him.

“Follow me, he’s in the park,” the man told me.

“Follow – but not too close.”

We did.

I was in the same park a few weeks ago after fugitive Hadush Kebatu, the Ethiopian sex offender – also wrongly released from prison – was arrested in Finsbury Park.

It was odd to be back in the same spot in such similar circumstances.

Read more on Tom’s story:
Wrongly released prisoner’s angry reaction
‘I’m glad he’s been arrested‘

As he led us through the park past joggers, young families and people playing tennis, the man headed for the gates near Finsbury Park station.

All of a sudden, two police officers ran past us.

The Met had received a tip-off from a member of the public.

It was frantic. Undercover officers, uniformed cops, screeching tyres and blaring sirens. We were in the middle of the manhunt.

As they scoured the streets at speed, we walked by some of the Algerian men I’d seen in the cafe.

One man near the group was wearing green tracksuit bottoms, a beanie hat and had glasses on.

“It’s him, it’s him,” one of the other men said to me, gesturing towards him.

The man in the beanie then quickly turned on his heel and walked off.

“It’s him, it’s him,” another guy agreed.

The suspect was walking off while the police were still searching the nearby streets.

Josh and I caught up with him and I asked directly: “Are you Brahim?”

You may have watched the exchange in the Sky News video – he was in denial, evasive and pretended the suspect had pedalled off on a Lime bike.

I can only guess he knew the game was up, but for whatever reason, he was keeping up the lie.

Moments later, one of the bystanders told me “it is him” – with added urgency.

Only the prisoner knows why he then walked up to the nearby police van – officers quickly moved to handcuff him and tell him why he was being arrested.

Over the next 10 minutes, he became agitated. His story changed as I repeatedly asked if he had been the man inside HMP Wandsworth.

Officers needed confirmation too – one quickly pulled out a smartphone and checked an image of the wanted man from one of Sky News’ online platforms.

“It’s not my f****** fault, they release me!” he yelled at me.

The search was over, the prisoner cage in the back of the van was opened and he was guided in.

I then spoke to another Algerian man who had tipped off the police – he told me he hated sex offenders and the shame he felt over the whole episode.

The community had done the right thing – there were two tip-offs – one to me, one to the police.

The farce of this manhunt had gone on long enough.

UK

Nadjib, who tipped off police over released prisoner Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, tells Sky News he’s ‘happy to see him arrested’

Published

3 hours ago

November 8, 2025

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Nadjib, who tipped off police over released prisoner Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, tells Sky News he's 'happy to see him arrested'

“It’s him, it’s him, it’s him”, the man told me urgently.

While police were frantically searching in Finsbury Park for wanted sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, locals were telling me where he was.

Immediately after the dramatic arrest, filmed exclusively by Sky News we spoke to the North African man who tipped off the police.

Nadjib had been on the lookout for the convicted sex offender, who had been spending time in different parts of north London since his release from HMP Wandsworth.

He even had a folded-up newspaper clipping in his pocket so that he could check the picture himself.

He told Sky News he was “very happy when he got arrested”.

“I don’t like the sex offenders,” he said.

“I know him from the community. He has been around here every night since he was released from prison.”

Not only did he tip the police off about the prisoner’s whereabouts, but he also witnessed the other high-profile manhunt that ended in the same park last month.

Ethiopian asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu was also arrested in Finsbury Park after a 48-hour manhunt in the capital. He was then deported to Ethiopia.

“When he [Kebatu] got arrested in the park I was there,” Nadjib said.

I asked him why both men ended up in the same park in north London.

“Because the community, he came here for the community of Algerians,” he said.

Several Algerian people that I spoke to on Friday told me how shameful they thought it was that this sex offender was still on the run.

“Job done,” Nadjib said, before walking off.

UK

Alice Figueiredo: NHS trust and ward manager to be sentenced – over a decade after young patient’s death

Published

3 hours ago

November 8, 2025

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Alice Figueiredo: NHS trust and ward manager to be sentenced - over a decade after young patient's death

An NHS trust and a ward manager will be sentenced next week for health and safety failings – more than a decade after a young woman died in a secure mental health hospital.

Warning: This article contains references to suicide.

Earlier this year, a jury found the North East London NHS Foundation Trust and ward manager Benjamin Aninakwa did not do enough to prevent Alice Figueiredo from killing herself.

The decisions were reached after the joint-longest jury deliberation in English legal history.

Alice was 22 years old when she took her own life at London’s Goodmayes Hospital in July 2015.

Her parents sat through seven months of difficult and graphic evidence – and told Sky News the experience retraumatised them.

Jane Figueiredo said: “It’s very distressing, because you know that she’s been failed at every point all the way along, and you’re also reliving the suffering that she went through.

“It’s adding trauma on top of the wound that you’ve already got, the worst wound you can imagine, of losing your child.”

Alice’s stepfather Max said he remains “appalled” that she died in a place they thought would care for her.

“The fact we have these repeated deaths of very young people in secure mental health units shocks me to the core. How can society look at that event and portray it as something that happens as a matter of course?”

Ms Figueiredo said Alice had predicted her own death.

“She said to us – out of fear really: ‘The only way I’m going to leave this ward is in a body bag.’

“It’s because she did not feel safe.”

In a statement, the North East London NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are deeply sorry for Alice’s death, and we extend our heartfelt condolences to her family and loved ones.

“We have taken significant steps to continually improve the physical and social environment, deliberately designed to support recovery, safety, wellbeing, and assist our workforce in delivering compassionate care.”

For Alice’s family, the convictions have brought some justice, but they will never have complete closure.

“As a mum your bereavement doesn’t ever end, it changes over years as you go on, but it’s unending. The thought I won’t even hear her voice is unbearable and I still miss it. I still miss her voice,” Ms Figueiredo said.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.