Lucy Letby trial: Premature baby ‘murdered by nurse’ stopped breathing ‘without warning’

Lucy Letby, originally from Hereford, denies the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of 10 others between June 2015 and June 2016

Lucy Letby is on trial for multiple alleged murders (Supplied)

The mother of a premature baby allegedly murdered by nurse Lucy Letby was told her son stopped breathing “without warning”, a court heard.

The baby, referred to as Child C, was born weighing 800 grams at the Countess of Chester Hospital on 10 June 2015 and taken to the neonatal unit. He is one of seven babies allegedly killed by the 32-year-old.

In a statement, his mother said after his birth the staff on the unit remained positive about his progress, as did she and her husband.

She said: “We weren’t being unrealistic but we could see he was doing all that was expected of him.”

On 13 June 2015, the mother, who was staying on a post-natal ward in the hospital following the birth, was awoken by a nurse at 11.20pm and told to go and see her son “urgently”, she said.

She said it was explained to her that his heart rate had suddenly dropped and he had stopped breathing “without warning”.

The court heard the child’s change in condition had been “very sudden and unexpected”.

She said: “Initially I didn’t really take in what was happening and I didn’t take in the severity until I was asked by a neonatal nurse whether I wanted someone to call a priest.

“I remember feeling quite shocked and I asked her if she thought he was going to die, to which she responded, ‘Yes, I think so’.”

Court sketch of Letby appearing in the dock at Manchester Crown Court (PA Wire)

The woman said her husband arrived at the hospital, a priest was called and their baby was baptised.

She said: “It was a way in which we were able to validate that he had been here. We wouldn’t have had anything else.”

The woman said after Child C was baptised she was told he had died but when she held him he was still breathing.

When a consultant asked her if she wanted them to continue with CPR she said no, after brain scans had showed extensive changes as he had been deprived of oxygen for quite a long time.

She said: “I just wanted us to be together.”

The court heard she and her husband, who also called their parents to the hospital, stayed with their son until he passed away on the morning of 14 June 2015.

The court also heard a statement from her husband who said Ms Letby, who he now recognised from pictures in newspapers, was one of two nurses who took the couple and their son to a family room to be together before he died.

He said while in the room one of the nurses, who he thought could have been Ms Letby, brought a ventilator basket in and said: “You’ve said your goodbyes, do you want me to put him in here?”

The Countess of Chester Hospital where Letby worked as a nurse (Getty Images)

He said the comment shocked them as their son was not dead.

He added: “We didn’t want to leave him while he was still alive.”

Ms Letby is accused of murdering the boy by inserting air into his stomach via a nasogastric tube.

In an opening speech, Ben Myers KC, defending, said Child C was vulnerable, especially to infection, and should have been at a specialist children’s hospital.

Ms Letby, originally from Hereford, denies the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of 10 others between June 2015 and June 2016.

The trial continues.