‘Cold’ Lucy Letby failed final year student nurse placement, inquiry hears
Lucy Letby initially failed her final year placement as a student nurse after she was assessed to be “cold” and lacking empathy, a public inquiry has heard.
Her assessor Nicola Lightfoot, deputy ward manager on the children’s unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, said it was apparent to her that Letby did not have the “overall characteristics” to become a successful registered nurse.
She told the inquiry: “I found Lucy to be quite cold. I did not find a natural warmth exuding from her which I expect from a children’s nurse.
“We see students that are extremely academic, but actually from a personality point of view they don’t seem to blend into the role of being a children’s nurse which includes characteristics [such] as empathy, being kind, being friendly and being able to establish good relationships with our families.”
Ms Lightfoot said Letby‘s clinical knowledge was “not where it should be” and that she “struggled” to retain information over calculating dosages of drug medication and also to recognise side effects of common drugs.
The assessor’s report, written in July 2011, said she believed Letby required “much more support, prompting and supervision than I would expect at this stage to allow her to qualify as a competent practitioner”.
Letby is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder six others between June 2015 and June 2016.
The public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Letby’s crimes is sitting at Liverpool Town Hall, with findings published by late autumn 2025.
Letby is serving 15 whole-life orders
Ms Lightfoot told the hearing she overheard an “inappropriate” comment from Letby following the deaths of two triplet boys in June 2016.
Letby, 34, from Hereford, was later convicted of murdering the two babies.
Ms Lightfoot said she heard Letby say “something along the lines of: ‘You’ll never guess what’s happened'”.
“The way she said it seemed like she was talking about some sort of exciting event she had witnessed,” Ms Lightfoot told the inquiry.
“It wasn’t an appropriate response to the death of a child. I have never, and I have never since, seen a response like that to a nurse involved in a patient’s passing.”
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The inquiry heard Letby requested a different supervisor because she felt “intimidated” by Ms Lightfoot.
She passed the three areas she failed in after she completed a four-week retrieval placement with a different supervisor, the hearing was told.
Letby’s next mentor, Sarah Jayne Murphy, said she felt “conflicted” over later passing her but said she had met the standards required.
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Ms Murphy, who also mentored Letby in her first year as a student nurse, said she remembered her being “quiet” and “shy”.
“She didn’t show good inter-personal skills with children, parents, nurses or the wider team,” she said.
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How the police caught Lucy Letby
Ms Murphy said Letby “often had quite an expressionless look” which she and other staff members “found awkward”.
Another nurse, Janet Cox, told the inquiry she had no concerns or suspicions about Letby’s conduct and believed she was an “exemplary nurse who was completely innocent of all the alleged crimes”.
“Obviously any death is a worry but I did not think this at the time, nor do I think now that there was anything sinister about the increase in the number of deaths/collapses,” she said.
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
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