Lucy Letby hospital ward manager 'drew up list of 15 reasons why baby killer nurse was innocent'

Documents released for the Thirlwall Inquiry, which is looking into how incidents could have been prevented, show that Eirian Powell, Letby’s boss, was unconvinced by allegations against the nurse

Lucy Letby's boss was unconvinced by the allegations that she was harming and murdering babies at the hospital she worked in, new court documents have revealed.

Eirian Powell, a neonatal ward manager at the Countess of Chester hospital, drew up a list of 15 reasons why Letby was not to blame for the deaths and collapse of babies. The documents were released as part of the Thirlwall Inquiry, which is examining how the incidents could have been prevented.

Powell was found to have circulated a document entitled Neonatal Unit review 2015-2016, in May 2016, which listed 15 reasons why it was unlikely that a member of staff was killing babies on the ward.

“There is no evidence whatsoever against LL (Lucy Letby) other than coincidence,” she wrote. “LL works full time and has the qualification in speciality (QIS). She is therefore more likely to be looking after the sickest infant on the unit, LL is also available herself to work overtime when the acuity of the unit is over capacity.”

The manager then suggested that the spike in deaths could in some cases be accounted for by failings on the unit, while in other cases health problems with the babies contributed to the deaths.

Powell argued that two infants were diagnosed with congenital pneumonia, two had necrotising enterocolitis – a dangerous gastrointestinal complication – and one mum had a maternal syndrome, while another baby had sepsis.

“Some of the issues were related to midwifery problems,” she added. “The Cheshire and Mersey transport service have been involved in a few of these mortalities and they may have survived if the service was running adequately.” She concluded: “Of all the post results there was no evidence of foul play.”

Ms Powell also pointed out that two other doctors, Dr John Gibbs and Dr Dave Harkness, were present at a number of the incidents.

Letby was convicted of killing seven infants and attempting to murder another seven at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

Since Letby's sentencing, a number of experts - including scientists, statisticians, doctors and nurses - have come forward to question the reliability of the evidence that landed her in jail. They have since questioned the evidence given to the jury, who were not told about multiple reviews done at the hospital to get to the bottom of the deaths.

These reviews pointed to overcrowding, sub-optimal care, understaffing and transfer issues. A document released this week by the inquiry from the hospital's director of corporate and legal affairs, Stephen Cross, found that the police were reluctantly contacted in 2017.

“In our view, there is no evidence to justify a criminal investigation,” he wrote. “However, in the spirit of openness and transparency, the matter is being reported to the police, having regard to the fact that a number of consultant paediatricians are not satisfied with the very thorough investigations and reviews undertaken.

“Twelve of the deaths have been subject to post-mortem, but there have been no suspicious findings. A secondary review of four deaths, by pathologists at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, did not raise any concerns regarding unnatural causes of deaths.”

Dr Stephen Brearey, a paediatric consultant at the hospital, gave evidence at the inquiry this week and was asked about Ms Powell’s list of reasons Letby was not to blame.

Dr Brearey, who was one of the first doctors to raise concerns about the nurse and call for her removal, said he felt Ms Powell had spoken about areas of expertise that were beyond her training.

“Saying there is no evidence whatsoever other than coincidence overlooks the timing of the deaths and the sudden, unexpected nature of the deaths,” he told the hearing. "The increase in numbers above anything we’d expected."

He went on: “The babies had congenital abnormalities but the point and the level of concern was that it wasn’t clear from the post-mortem results that those congenital abnormalities had led to the sudden collapses.

“Dr Harkness and Dr Gibbs appear to be involved in many mortalities. Well, they were involved more than some of the other doctors but it was still less than half of the episodes that Letby had been involved with.”

The prosecution argue that Letby's conviction came after ample evidence from specialists, which the defence could have called rebuttal witnesses for, but chose not to.

The inquiry continues.