Letby asked support worker to meet on anniversary of victim's death

Lucy Letby asked to meet her support worker on the anniversary of one of her victim's deaths and admitted it 'must be' her fault babies died more than a year before she was arrested.

Kathryn de Beger, a senior occupational health nurse, said she knew the neo-natal nurse was suspected of harming and killing premature newborns, but insisted the comments didn't cause her any concern.

She also encouraged Letby to visit Alder Hey Children's Hospital, in Liverpool, where she had set up several 'observational' sessions to watch operations and attend clinics, so she could get away from the 'stress' of the investigation into the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

The public inquiry into Letby's crimes was told Ms de Beger, who had been tasked with looking after Letby's well-being, swapped around 750 WhatsApp messages with the killer nurse in just 15 months, often discussing shopping trips, cooking tips and other personal issues out of office hours.

But she insisted they didn't 'detract from her independence' and she was simply going 'above and beyond' to support Letby's mental health and get her through a 'distressing' time.

Letby, 34, is serving a whole life tariff after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more on the unit between June 2015 and June 2016.

Andrew Bershadski, counsel to the inquiry, asked Ms de Beger about a request from Letby to meet up around the anniversary of one of the babies' deaths, in July 2017.

She admitted that she would 'likely' have known that Letby was suspected of deliberately killing babies by that time and that no other staff member had expressed distress on the anniversary of a patient's death in her career at the Countess.

But despite this, she said it didn't give her any cause for concern.

'It was in the context of she said she was feeling particularly distressed but how much more distressed would the parents feel at the loss of their baby, that's how she framed it,' Ms de Beger said.

The inquiry was also shown an email Ms de Beger sent Letby a few months earlier, in April, to reassure her that senior managers supported her return to the unit 'where you belong.'

Around that time, Letby was upset that mediation with the consultants had broken down and that moves to get her back to nursing had been postponed.

In her reply to Ms de Beger, Letby said: 'I feel as though this must be my fault and maybe I have done something wrong to babies and blame myself - do you think that's normal?'

But again Ms de Beger said the comment didn't raise any red flags, nor did she believe, with hindsight, that she should have highlighted it to someone more senior.

'She says, 'maybe I have done something,' she doesn't say she has,' Ms de Beger said. 'I know she was very distressed and stressed at that time and all the conversations we'd had previous to this, she'd always told me she'd done nothing wrong, why were people doing this to her, and why did the consultants hate her so much, I heard that many times.'

The inquiry heard that Letby was referred to Ms de Beger by the manager of the neo-natal unit, Eirian Powell, soon after she was moved off the ward following the murder of her final two victims, two triplet brothers who were killed on consecutive shifts, at the end of June 2016.

Initially, Ms de Beger said she was told about the investigation into the spike in deaths on the unit and that Letby was being redeployed into a clerical job for retraining. However, later she learned that Letby was being accused of causing harm.

The inquiry heard that Ms de Beger was in a WhatsApp group with Letby, Karen Rees, the hospital's director of nursing in urgent care, and Hayley Cooper, Letby's union representative.

She admitted it was 'not normal' practice to be in a group with someone she was supporting, or to send so many messages to them, but she said that, at the time, she believed she was the only one in Letby's corner.

'I've not been in a WhatsApp group with any other member of staff but I've not supported staff in this situation ever before and I felt at that time that I was the only support that Lucy Letby had,' she said.

'I was given the role to support her mental health and well-being. She was going through what I thought at the time was a very distressing situation and it was given to me to support her the best I could, to keep her in work and maintain her mental health. I felt that fell just on me.

'That's why there were so many messages to try to make sure she was ok. All the messages (couldn't) be about mindfulness and coping strategies to keep her grounded in the moment, it was about normal events as well.'

In one message Ms de Beger reassured Letby: 'We are supporting all the staff, I was in the unit yesterday and will go again on Monday, but you are my priority.'

Mr Bershadski asked: 'Why was Lucy Letby your priority when you were also supporting all members of staff on the unit?

She replied: 'Because I was the only person Lucy Letby was seeing.'

She claimed Ms Cooper and Ms Rees, who was a 'very senior member of staff,' had different roles and she was the 'only person that was supporting her well-being at that time.'

The inquiry also heard that a witness has claimed that Ms de Beger was put under pressure and 'harassed' by Letby's father, John, in telephone calls. Although she said she couldn't recall ever speaking to him on the phone or being harassed.

She did, however, admit being at a meeting with Letby's mother, Sue, and at another where the couple and Letby argued about how best to deal with the 'process she was under.'

But she insisted it wasn't unusual for members of staff to ask for their 'partner, union representative or manager' to come along to meetings.