Lucy Letby's parents 'wanted doctors who raised suspicions sacked'

Lucy Letby's parents wanted doctors who raised suspicions about her murdering babies 'instantly' sacked, a public inquiry heard on Tuesday. 

The serial killer's father, John Letby, 78, repeatedly rang and put 'pressure' on his daughter's support worker at the Countess of Chester Hospital, when she was moved off the neo-natal unit amid fears she was harming children in her care.

The Thirlwall Inquiry has heard that, soon afterwards, Letby lodged an employment grievance with the Trust. It was eventually upheld and all seven consultants on the unit ordered to apologise to her.

Letby felt Dr Stephen Brearey, the lead consultant, and Dr Ravi Jayaram, the head of children's services, had 'orchestrated a campaign' to have her removed from the ward and was upset about other doctors allegedly referring to her publicly as the 'angel of death.'

On Tuesday it emerged that chief executive Tony Chambers and other senior executives held a meeting with Letby and her parents, in December 2016, to tell her she had been cleared of any wrongdoing and would be reinstated.

During that meeting, Mr Letby, a retired retail manager, referred to Dr Brearey and Dr Jayaram, saying: 'The behaviour of those two people, they should be instantly dismissed.'

The Letbys also wanted the same doctors reported to the medical watchdog, the General Medical Council. 

They told the executives their daughter had been to 'hell and back' in the five months since she had been redeployed into a clerical role.

'We believe that certain consultants have a personal grudge against Lucy and we are at a loss as to understanding why,' they said.

Giving evidence on Tuesday Sue Hodkinson, the hospital's former Director of People, said she 'stepped in' to speak to Mr Letby after occupational health nurse Kathryn de Beger, who had been assigned to support Letby, complained she was struggling to manage his repeated calls.

Ms Hodkinson said: 'She (Ms de Beger) described to me how Mr Letby was getting agitated on the phone with her, that it was becoming increasingly difficult to manage and she felt very uncomfortable.

'I felt I needed to support her through this situation. In fact, I don't think I had ever spoken to a member of a family in relation to an employment issue. That was the only time.

'And then having the conversation with Mr Letby it was very clear it was a very difficult set of conversations.'

The inquiry, which is investigating Letby's crimes, has heard that Dr Brearey and Dr Jayaram felt harassed and victimised by senior managers, who they say put the hospital's reputation before patient safety, when they tried to blow the whistle.

Dr Jayaram said he felt forced, under threat of disciplinary action, to attend a mediation session with Letby, who told him she was returning to work 'whether he liked it or not.'

On Tuesday, Ms Hodkinson personally apologised to Dr Jayaram and admitted the senior executives should have supported the consultants' better.

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She said a 'real turning point' came on March 15, 2017 when Dr Jayaram told her about an incident in February 2016 when he saw Letby at a baby's cot side and that a valve had moved to a different setting.

Ms Hodkinson said the new information made her feel 'really, really uncomfortable' and she was 'stunned.'

She said it 'made her think' that the senior team hadn't looked into some of the clinical aspects of what the medics were alleging 'enough.'

'I remember going home at night and I was in tears about it,' she said.

Ms Hodkinson claimed that, from that point onwards, the intention of the executive team was to call in the police. 

She insisted letters she sent to Letby, reassuring her that she would soon be returning to the unit, were 'untrue' and had been used simply as a 'stalling' tactic because they were under 'significant pressure' from Letby's union, the Royal College of Nursing.

But Richard Baker, for the families, pointed out that, as late as May 16 – the day the executives first met Cheshire police – Mr Chambers was telling her that the plan was to report Dr Brearey and Dr Jayaram to the GMC and that he wanted them 'managed' out of the hospital.

Ms Hodkinson denied she was a 'willing participant' in this plan, saying she was 'categorically not' supportive of it. 

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She also rejected claims that the whole handling of the affair was a 'spectacular failure' on the part of the executives to safeguard patient safety.

Letby, 34, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.

The inquiry, sitting at Liverpool Town Hall before Lady Justice Thirlwall, is expected to run until early 2025, with findings published by late autumn of that year.