Humidity tomorrow as the Wind Shifteds into the south west, still feeling warm when get the sun out, so it looks like a stormy night ahead, as we gradually head through the weekend, that low pressure pulling further away, High Pressure is being allowed to build to the south, so fewer showers on saturday and sunday, more dry windows of weather but with this winds in the north and west a few shower, it will be warmer on the east coast of scotland tomorrow and on sunday, still 2a, scotland tomorrow and on sunday, still 24, 25 but scotland tomorrow and on sunday, still 2a, 25 but really batten £the hatch, nasty weather tonight. Still 2a, 25 but really batten £the hatch, nasty weather tonight. Thats it. You can keep up with all the latest developments on bbc website, but the news continues here on bbc one, as we welcome to a Special Edition of Northwest Tonight where we also welcome viewers watching around the uk. Guilty nurse lucy letby is the most prolific baby killer in modern times. She perverted her learning and weaponised her craft to inflict harm, grief and death. This is the moment she was arrested. Today, shes guilty of murdering seven babies and trying to kill six more. As baby deaths rose at the countess of Chester Hospital why didnt the trust act sooner . Given themselves the role of the investigating officer when they didnt have the skills to do so and certainly didnt have the openness of mind to consider the unthinkable. And heartbroken, Angry And Numb we hear from parents whose newborns died in letby 5 care. He had blood around his mouth. And lucy was there. It isjust beyond your imagination that somebody is on a ward killing babies, it is unbelievable. She is the most prolific killer of babies in modern british history. Lucy letby a nurse responsible for looking after the sickest of newborns. Instead she set about killing them. Betweenjune 2015 and june 2016 she murdered seven babies and tried to kill six more. She deliberately injected some with air, force fed others with milk and poisoned two of the infants with insulin. She was finally caught after a two year investigation by cheshire police. Stuart pollitt was in court for the verdict he joins us now live from Manchester Crown court. Thanks, yes, the trial has been going on here since october through autumn, spring and into summer. The jury autumn, spring and into summer. The jury had been deliberating for 22 days. They have been delivering partial verdicts over the last ten days but this lunchtime the jury informed the judge they could no longer reach an agreement on the outstanding accounts which brought this trial to a conclusion. That means we can now report the full facts of those case and those facts are lucy letby murdered seven babies and attempted to murder six more. The court was absolutely packed to hear the end of the trial, victims families were present, many holding hands, some clutching baby toys. One person was not in court, lucy letby. She had attended some of the previous guilty verdicts but in the last few days she has refused to come into the dock to face those families and to face up to our crimes. I could give your all manner of facts and figures about the scale of facts and figures about the scale of this case and investigation but to see its impact, you had to be in the court to see the anguish and the faces of mothers and fathers who have lost a child. Faces of mothers and fathers who have lost a child. I speak on behalf ofthe have lost a child. I speak on behalf of the entire have lost a child. I speak on behalf of the entire prosecution have lost a child. I speak on behalf. Of the entire Prosecution Team when i see that of the entire Prosecution Team when i see that all of their babies will forever i see that all of their babies will forever be i see that all of their babies will forever be in our hearts. I cannot begin to imagine how the families in this case feel today. Ijust hope that todays verdict will bring all of them some Peace Of Mind for the future. Lucy letby was entrusted to protect some of the most vulnerable babies, in her hands innocuous substances like air, milk or medication like insulin would become lethal. She perverted her learning and weaponised her craft to inflict harm, grief and death. To lose a baby or to have a baby harmed in these circumstances is unimaginable. Today, justice has been served and a nurse who should have been caring for our babies has been found guilty of harming them. This justice will not take away from the extreme hurt, anger and distress we have all had to experience. Reactions from outside court. Lucy letby will be sentenced here on monday whether she is here or not, meanwhile the prosecution has asked for 28 days to consider whether to seek a retrial on the six outstanding accounts in this case. The events from today, from this court are clear and that is not a nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child colour my child killer in modern british history. Child killer in modern british histo. , ~ child killer in modern british histo. ~ , child killer in modern british histo. ,. So how was lucy letby caught . Our reporter andy gill has been following the case since her arrest and throughout the long trial. He reports now on the complex Police Investigation. Hello, lucy . Yes. Im from cheshire police. Can we come in . Police arrived at lucy letby� s home in chester early in the Morning Injuly 2018. They are investigating unexplained deaths of premature babies at the hospital where she worked. Later an officer leads her to a car to be taken first police interview. She is asked if she knows why she has been arrested. Lucy letby had done special training to look after vulnerable babies at the Countess Of Chesters Neonatal Unit. A young woman qualified to help keep alive tiny babies at the start of their lives. A young women who sentjokey messages to colleagues about getting the prosecco in for her house warming party. A young woman who murdered children she was supposed to care for. When one of the doctors at chester first heard that nurse led by� s name was being linked the deaths, he said no, it cannot be lucy, not nice lucy. Another doctor told us she was one of the few nurses in the region who he would trust with his own children. But her trial heard that she was the constant malevolent presence when babies were killed or attacked. On post it notes found at her chester home, letby protested her innocence but on one she wrote, i am evil, i did this because i am not good enough to care for them. Her defence said this was the anguished outpouring of young of young woman realising what she was accused of and not a confession. The jury decided that the note did reveal the truth. I was surprised that there was so much material that was quite graphic in its nature of what she wrote. It was there, almost presented to us when we arrived. When you overlay it with all the evidence we had got on placement and times and eyewitness and medical evidence, then it is very damning. The court heard shee used a variety of methods to kill and harm babies. She was accused of injecting her victims with air, with excess fluids, of poisoning them with insulin, of interfering with their breathing tubes, of physically assaulting them. The attacks happened mainly when letby was on the night shift. When she was moved to days, the collapses also moved to the daytime. Some incidents happened within hours of each other, sometimes weeks passed between them. The jury were shown a chart of who was on duty when the collapses happened. The only common denominator was lucy letby. Because lucy letby denied all the charges she faced, police and prosecutors were not able to say why she did what she did. Betweenjune 2015 and june 2016, at a unit dedicated to the care of the most vulnerable, a murderer was at work. Babies died, others were left brain damaged. Some survived attacks unscathed. Parents were bereaved, colleagues left distressed and disbelieving. Lucy letby was meant to care, instead she killed. Andy gill with that report. In the last hour the Health Minister Helen Whatley has been giving her reaction to the conviction of lucy letby. Shes announced a Public Inquiry and says the Central Question is why the hospital took so long to stop her. Doctors repeatedly raised their concerns and that did not lead to the action being taken that you would have expected. This is one of the things that clearly the inquiry should look into. The chair of that inquiry will set the scope of it but that is definitely something where there are questions to be answered. Well, lets go to the countess of Chester Hospital now. Our Health Correspondent Gill Dummigan is there. Gill, as the ministerjust said the trust has Big Questions to answer about the time it took for letby to be removed from the special care baby unit. Yes. The first murder she was convicted of, baby a, was injune 2015. The last 7 a year later, shortly before she was removed from the unit. Now, this was a small unit, senior clinicians were asking questions fairly early on about the sharp increase in the death rate. But one of them has told the bbc that senior managers just many questions being raised, the former Chief Inspector told us that no concerns were raised to him before june 2016 no concerns were raised to him beforejune 2016 and then they acted. He also said the police were called in following a meeting but he said his thoughts are with the children at the heart of the case, their families children at the heart of the case, theirfamilies and children at the heart of the case, their families and loved children at the heart of the case, theirfamilies and loved ones children at the heart of the case, their families and loved ones and children at the heart of the case, theirfamilies and loved ones and he is truly sorry for what the families of going through. He said the crimes were appalling, he is deeply saddened and is Chief Executive his focus is on the safety of the baby unit and the well being of patients and staff. He adds there is always lessons to be learned and the best way to do this would be through our inquiry. The former Medical Director says he does not remember any concerns being raised to them before may 2016, he had an Open Door Policy and said a number of these allegations had been looked at by the General Medical Council in the case was closed with no further action. He added his thoughts were with the babies and their families and was sorry for their suffering. As Medical Director he was determined to keep the unit safe for patients and staff. He also said he would help with any future inquiry. So what of the hospital itself . They released a statement this afternoon, not addressing specific questions but also said they were saddened and appalled by what happened. They said theyre extremely sorry the crimes were committed at their hospital and they were committed to ensuring lessons continue to be learnt and wanted to reassure every patient could be confident in the care they received. We had a technical package technical problem with the package before but i think we can bring that to you now. To us the evidence in front of us was quite clear. It felt like they were trying to engineer some sort of narrative or way out of this that didnt involve going to the police. They had given themselves the role of investigating officer when they dont have the skills to do so and certainly dont have the openness of mind to consider the unthinkable. Untiljune 2015 there were fewer than three baby deaths a year here but that month there were three within a fortnight. The Neonatal Unit carried out a review of care. There was nothing in common that we could pin this three deaths on. That Static Analysis did identify that lucy letby was on shift for those three episodes. In the following months two more babies died unexpectedly, again with lucy letby on shift. Three others had suddenly collapsed. Bt october, dr breardy was starting to have some very uncomfortable thoughts. It is something that nobody wants to consider, that a member of staff might be harming the baby is under your care. But doctor brady felt he had to consider them that lucy letby might be responsible and others should be considering it as well. He contacted a manager to discuss his concerns but the manager thought letby� s presence was just an unfortunate coincidence. The following february he asked for an urgent meeting with senior managers. He got it in may. Letby continue to work on the unit. Injune 2016, after two more deaths with seven consultants now demanding her removal, lucy letby was finally redeployed. One of the consultants now wanted the police to be brought in. The trust thought otherwise. We had a number of meetings with senior management, it was quite clear that they were not going to budge and they did not think it appropriate to go to the police at that stage. Instead they commissioned two external reviews. Consultants kept pushing for action. By the following spring they demanded that the police were brought in. Within days of the first meeting with cheshire police, a Criminal Investigation was launched. We had seen paediatricians bravely speak out over several years. And be treated appallingly. Dr susan gilby became the Medical Director after lucy letby was arrested in 2013, becoming Chief Executive soon after. Even then she said there was a reluctance to accept letby could have done anything wrong. There was a very strong opinion that even though the police had seen fit to make this arrest and therefore must have had evidence that they had found in their lengthy investigation to present to lucy letby, the feeling was there would be nothing found. Doctor breary believes that Police Investigation would never have happened if he and his colleagues had not persisted. I am sure, yes, that was the intention of the executives, was to somehow close this case. Today, nearly eight years after those first suspicions were raised to the trust, lucy letby� s guilt was confirmed by the jury. At the end of the day there is only one Serial Killer of babies that has worked in the organisation and the Executive Team were not the people who were responsible for the deaths of those babies. Doctor gilbay left the Countess Of Chester at the end of last year on an unrelated matter. She is now suing for constructive dismissal. She says the nhs needs to examine how events in the neonatal in the Neonatal Unit were handled. They had some opportunities to reach out to others who might have been able to get to the bottom of what was happening and indeed to stop it from happening and i think those opportunities i hope that opportunities were not missed but i fear they might have been. Right at the centre of this horror story are the families of the babies killed and injured by lucy letby. Two of the children she was found guilty of attacking were twins known during the trial as baby e and baby f. Baby e died baby f survived with life changing disabilities. Her parents have been talking to the bbc about the moments leading up to the death of their son. In the corridor, we could immediately hear crying. It felt like more than crying. It was screaming. I was like what is the matter with him . I walked into the room to see my boy. He had blood around his mouth and lucy was there. Lucy said, dont worry. She had this really calm demeanour about her. She was very, very softly spoken. Dont worry, the doctor is coming. She had already contacted him and he was on his way. She told me to get back to the ward. I was trying to reassure my wife that, listen, these people are experts. If they say there is not a problem you have nothing to worry about. That was the first call. Quickly followed by a second phone call with a midwife saying, you need to get here now. There was a third phone call saying where are you . The priest has been called. Ijust knew at that point. The consultant said we are going to stop. We want him to die in your arms. Rather than him being worked on. So we said ok. And they passed him to us. And he died. I think she is a hateful human being. She has taken everything from us, absolutely everything. It is beyond your imagination that somebody is on a ward killing babies. It is unbelievable. Because what she has done has changed the course of our life for ever. A Bbc Panorama Documentary called . Lucy letby the nurse who killed . Will be available to watch on iplayer later today. And this is a distressing case so if you, or someone you know, needs help after hearing about it, the details of organisations offering assistance can be found on the bbc� s action line website at bbc. Co. Uk actionline. No one knows why lucy letby committed her horrific crimes. Police and the prosecution have no idea what her motive was. This Serial Killer was a daughter of middle england with a comfortable family background, a dedicated nurse in the special baby unit without a single caution or blemish on her record. So who is lucy letby . News of lucy letby� s arrest made headlines around the world. Our top story, a 28 year old nurse is still being questioned. Lucy letby worked at the Countess Of Chester and liverpool hospitals. Leaving her chester home, wearing a blue leisure suit, lucy letby, then aged 28, was first brought into Police Custody in the early hours of the 3rd ofjuly 2018. She grew up nearly 100 miles away in hereford with her mum susan and dad john. As a first person in herfamily to go to university, lucy letby then made chester her home, studying nursing for three years at the citys university she started at the countess of Chester Hospital full time in 2012 and later qualified to work with predominantly the sickest babies in Intensive Care by 2015. By april 2016, she had moved into her house in westbourne road, just over a mile away from the hospital. Five months later she received a letter from the Royal College of nursing outlining the allegations against her. During the trial, she said she had always wanted to work with children and taking the stand in court six months into her trial, lucy letby started to cry as images of her home are shown to the jury, including her bedroom with cuddly toys on the bed. Letby told her Defence Barrister she had been prescribed antidepressants by her gp after receiving the letter which she says she is still taking. She said she had previously had quite an active social life outside work, regularly attending Salsa Classes and going on holiday and out with friends. Since november 2020, lucy letby has remained in Police Custody across four different prisons. Lucy letby� s crimes will resonate across the country but particularly in the city of chester, where the hospital is based. Our reporter phil mccann is from chester himself and he joins us from there now. Annabel, chester is known for being a beautiful city and it is also a small city so when big things happen here, they really resonate. It doesnt get any bigger than this, that ugly building where lucy letby� s worked at the countess, is a scene of happy memories for thousands of people across this region. I have been there for both of my kids. Those memories are overtaken by the fact that is no mac a crime scene, one of the biggest killers of babies in british history. I have been speaking to people and got from them an overwhelming sense of shock but literally disbelief. Lets make music, have some fun. The Maternity Department at the countess has made memories and changed lives for thousands around West Cheshire and north wales. Darla, asher and fran were all born there. I would recommend it to anybody. Definitely. He was five weeks premature so we stayed at the Neonatal Unit for two weeks. We could not fault them, they were absolutely amazing. Lucy letby� s trial began before some of the babies that come here to music in chester every week were even born. It was in the news when gaby was expecting her baby. And whenjack was waiting to welcome ellie into the world. You kind of try and say there must be some mistake, that could not possibly have happened, it was just too horrible to even comprehend. But yes, it is absolutely shocking. When it is local as well itjust seems to hit home more. Not a lot happens in chester, it is quiet, not a lot changes so yes, when it happens where you were born and where your child was born, it can hit close to home. This is a city that is thought of as a safe place to bring up kids. You have so much to do, obviously the zoo and the river. Just so many lovely things to do and it is a friendly and safe area. This department has also been able to rely on the people of chester. For four years until 2017, the annual santa dash, zumbathons and loads of events were held for the baby grow appeal, to fund raise for a new neonatal baby unit at the countess. Letby was a neonatal nurse and so here she was in 2013 posing for a picture to promote the appeal. This whole case has caused people like claire to think. It was really positive. The staff right from my first appointment listened. Clear� s son rory was born at the countess in 2016 when letby was working there. He is seven months now. I do think what if . I do think i was very lucky that my labour had gone really well and actually we came out of the theatre and were together and i did not have any time away from the baby but yes, anybody who was there at that time has probably had that thought in their head. Happy singing. Lucy letby leaves behind a city full of parents with unanswerable questions and raw shocked at what happened in their Maternity Unit in their city where their children were born. Phil mccann, bbc north west tonight, chester. That Maternity Unit where lucy letby worked too soon to be demolished, it is being replaced. The scene of her crimes will be erased from the city landscape but the memory of her victims and those whose life she tried to take will certainly live on. Thanks, phil. This has been an extremely distressing case. Today weve heard shock, outrage and grief people struggling to come to terms with why an outwardly caring and compassionate young nurse was in reality a Serial Killer who, as the Prosecution Lawyer said weaponised her craft to maim and murder. We dont know why she did it we may never know. Theres talk tonight of reviews and public inquiries huge questions for the Countess Of Chester trust and the wider nhs to address. How after repeated warnings was lucy letby allowed to carry out a Year Long Campaign of murder. But thats for the future tonight our final thoughts must be with her victims and their grieving families. Lucy letby has been found guilty of the murder of seven babies and the Attempted Murder of seven more. Thank you for watching, good night. You are watching bbc news. The scene earlier today of one of the most long Running Trialfor earlier today of one of the most long running trial for murder earlier today of one of the most long Running Trialfor murder in english legal history. Lucy letby, the nurse who worked at the countess of Chester Hospital Neonatal Unit who is been on trial here for almost ten months convicted of killing seven of the babies in her care and attempting to kill six more. She faced 22 charges in total and the jury faced 22 charges in total and the jury are told that all six of the charges, they could not reach a verdict. They were split and could not decide beyond reasonable doubt whether lucy letby had attempted to murder the babies in those cases. But this makes her one of britains most notorious criminals. It makes are in fact the most prolific killer of children in modern times here in the uk. And this was a case of a young woman, only 33 years old, who was a young nurse who was admired and liked by her peers but who had a secret life, it seems, while she was spending time with friends, while she was posting on social media, going on holidays at the same time while she was scary for some of the sickest, most premature babies in the hospital in the Neonatal Unit, she was using her, as
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