Lucy Letby: Parents of baby killer’s victims reveal their heartbreak in court
The mother of a baby murdered by Lucy Letby said her experience in hospital was “like something out of a horror story” as the parents of newborns attacked by the killer nurse revealed their heartbreak in court.
The mother of premature baby Child D said the funeral was held the day before her due date, and the newborn’s organs could not be donated because a post-mortem had to be performed.
Another woman whose two children E and F were attacked by Letby said they were born after painful rounds of IVF. “No children in the world were more wanted than them,” she added.
Letby is due to be sentenced later after she was found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
‘Sadistic’ Letby refusing to leave cells – follow live sentencing updates
‘His murderer was watching us’
The mother of a baby referred to as Child C to protect his identity blamed herself for his death, saying she thought to herself: “What if I had not gone to bed that night? Maybe he would still be here.”
She told the court: “The trauma of that night will live with us all until the day we die. Knowing now his murderer was watching us… was like something out of a horror story.”
The mother of Child C also said she would open her son’s memory box in the days after his death, wearing his footprints around her neck to feel close to him.
But she added that after Letby’s arrest the mementoes felt “tainted”.
However she is now able to wear the mementoes again for the first time in five years, telling the court: “I know they represent the love I have for my son and I will not allow evil to take that. They represent justice and the truth.”
‘We hope you spend every day suffering’
A twin boy and girl, Child A and Child B respectively, were targeted by Letby in 2015.
The boy died while his sister survived.
The mother of the babies told the court: “What should have been the happiest time of our lives became our worst nightmare.”
She added that after her son died the family made sure there was always somebody by their daughter’s side.
“We are so thankful that we had that fear for Child B as it saved her life,” the mother added.
In a message directed at Letby, who has refused to attend her sentencing, the mother continued: “Little did we know you were waiting for us to leave so you could attack the one thing that gave us reason to live.”
She says there will always be a “gaping hole” where their son should be.
“We hope you live a very long life and spend every single day suffering for what you have done.”
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Moment of Lucy Letby’s arrest
Mother’s heart ‘shattered into a thousand pieces’
The mother of premature baby girl Child D was emotional as she said Letby’s “wicked sense of entitlement and abuse of her role as a trusted nurse is truly a scandal”.
“Lucy Letby, you failed God and the plans we had for (Child D).”
She added that her heart “shattered into a thousand pieces” when her daughter died.
She says she questioned if she had done something wrong, missed something or “failed her daughter”.
The mother then described how she has struggled with “grief and depression” during her fight for justice.
“My marriage is also scarred by all the hurdles we went through. At first, we were each other’s rocks… it has been hard to keep strong together.”
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How the police caught Lucy Letby
‘Significant harm and cruelty’
The mother of boys children E and F had the twins after several rounds of IVF.
Child E died while his brother survived.
“Lucy was aware of our journey and deliberately caused significant harm and cruelty to our boys,” she said with emotion thick in her voice.
“No children in the world were more wanted than them.”
Their son now has complex learning difficulties, which they believe is a direct result of his being poisoned with insulin.
“Nothing can change what has happened to us, we are living with a life sentence because of Lucy’s crimes.”
The mother also called Letby’s decision not to appear in court for her sentencing “one final act of wickedness from a coward”.
“Even in these final days of the trial she has tried to control things, the disrespect she has shown the families and the court show what type of person she is.”
She finished by calling Letby “nothing” before returning to sit with the other families.
Mother of triplets feels unable to speak in court
Children O and P were two triplet babies murdered by Letby.
The baby killer even took a photograph of them in a cot after their deaths.
Their mother provided a pre-recorded message to the court because she felt unable to enter the witness box.
She said Letby was unconsolable after the deaths of the babies.
“I only have one photograph of me holding all three boys together,” she says.
“It was Lucy Letby that dressed Child P after his passing and took his footprints which were stored in a memory box.”
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Letby ‘meets whole-life sentence threshold’
Baby left disabled after attack
Letby attempted to murder six babies during her time on the hospital’s neonatal unit – targeting Child G twice.
The baby girl was the result of IVF, which had cost the family great expense abroad.
Child G was left disabled after the attacks.
Her mother now finds it difficult to trust people who work in hospitals, but the parents need nurses to visit them every week to help support them and their child.
Child G’s father told the court: “Everything feels like a constant battle just to have the essential things that Child G needs during her daily life.”
He says his daughter will “never have a sleepover with a best friend, or go to high school and graduate. She will never have a first kiss, a boyfriend, or get married”.
“She will always be in her chair,” he added.
Mother now wants baby to home-schooled
The mother of Child N, who Letby tried to murder in June 2016, says she knew her son had been “deliberately harmed”.
“I just kept questioning why our healthy baby boy was fine one minute and then bleeding from the mouth and needing CPR the next.”
She added that she wants her child to be home-schooled because her belief in people in positions of trust has been broken.
A workman saved a seven-year-old boy from a burning car in the aftermath of a deadly crash caused by a suicidal ex-pilot, an inquest has heard.
The schoolboy’s rescue came following the collision on the M6, which killed former RAF man Richard Woods and four others, in October last year.
Last week a coroner ruled that Woods, 40, took his own life by deliberately driving his Skoda the wrong way down the motorway while drunk and hitting a Toyota Yaris head-on.
The driver of the Toyota, Jaroslaw Rossa, 42, was also killed, along with his two sons, Filip, 15, and Dominic, seven, and his partner Jade McEnroe, 33.
Cockermouth Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday that Ms McEnroe’s son was also in the car but survived after workman Gavin Walsh came to his rescue at the scene, which was near Tebay services in Cumbria.
In a statement to the inquest, Mr Walsh said he was a passenger in a transit van travelling to Scotland when he witnessed the crash.
He jumped out of the vehicle and used a jack to smash the rear windscreen of the Toyota and pulled the boy out of the burning vehicle.
Mr Walsh said: “We really did try, I can assure everyone we did our best. We only had minimal time.
“I saved a life that day and I hope never to witness anything like that again.”
He added that he has never stopped thinking about the boy, and said: “I hope we will meet again one day and I will give you a massive hug.”
At the time, the family were returning to Glasgow from a trip to Legoland in Windsor, Berkshire.
The inquest heard that Wood, who was travelling at a speed of at least 65mph, would have been charged with manslaughter had he survived.
Recording conclusions of unlawful killing, Cumbria assistant coroner Margaret Taylor said: “I found that Jaroslaw, Jade, Filip and Dominic died as a consequence of the unlawful acts of another driver.”
The inquest heard how Mr Woods, from Cambridgeshire, had served a distinguished 14-year career in the RAF and was a flight instructor for BAE Systems at the time of his death.
Jade McEnroe. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Dominic and Filip. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
In Ms Taylor’s record of inquest, Mr Woods was said to have been experiencing “a number of stressors in his life” and had a “history of harmful use of alcohol”.
Following the crash, he was found to be nearly four times over the legal drink-drive limit and a two-thirds empty bottle of gin was found in his car.
On the day of his death, concerns had been raised over his behaviour at a work conference near Preston in Lancashire.
Mr Woods failed to return to his seat after lunch and was later spotted driving erratically and swerving across three northbound carriageway lanes on the M6.
After pulling onto the hard shoulder, he then proceeded to U-turn and drove southward on lane three.
Filip, Dominic and Jaroslaw Rossa. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Detective Sergeant Deborah Story, from Cumbria Police, told the inquest that Mr Woods would have been prosecuted on four counts of manslaughter had he lived.
She said hypothetical charges of murder were considered by detectives but not thought appropriate because of a lack of information that Mr Woods knew the family or anything that provided a link between them.
Ms McEnroe’s parents, Marie McEnroe and George McNellis, told the coroner they thought it was “murder”.
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A statement from the mother of Filip and Dominic, and the ex-wife of Mr Rossa, Kamila, was read out at the inquest.
She said Mr Rossa, known as Jarek, was born in Poland where they became a couple and went on to have three boys.
He loved playing computer games and had “lots of friends”, she said, and worked at the Wagamama restaurant in Silverburn, Glasgow.
She said she was “devastated” over the deaths, adding: “Our lives will never be the same.
“I am heartbroken at the passing of my beloved angels Filip and Dominic.”
Marie McEnroe said her daughter, a spa therapist, had been in a relationship with Mr Rossa for about two-and-a-half years.
She said Jade had been a “brilliant mother” to her only child, was “really happy” with Mr Rossa and it was “lovely chaos” when all the boys were playing together.
Ms McEnroe added: “Life changed forever that day”.
Ms Taylor praised the “selfless acts of bravery” from those in the aftermath of the collision, including Mr Walsh, who she said went towards the burning car “without hesitation for his own safety”.
The coroner added: “Without his swift response, Jade’s child would also have perished.”
Addressing the bereaved family members, she said: “Your loss is unimaginable but you have conducted yourself with dignity and I thank you for that. I wish you strength for the future.”
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.
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