Lucy Letby emailed her colleagues on the Countess of Chester Hospital claiming she had been “exonerated” and asking them to be “delicate and supportive”.
The Thirlwall Inquiry into Letby’s crimes heard the previous nurse wrote the e-mail in January 2017, six months after she had been faraway from frontline scientific duties.
She claimed that “an intensive investigation” had established that “all allegations had been unfounded and unfaithful” and that she had “obtained a full apology” from the hospital belief.
Letby had been moved into an administrative function after a bunch of advisor paediatricians persistently raised considerations in regards to the deaths and collapses of infants on the neonatal ward.
‘Distressing’
Six months later the consultants had been informed to apologise to Letby after two impartial evaluations reported there was no proof of deliberate hurt.
A grievance process in opposition to her removing from the ward had additionally been upheld.
The e-mail stated: “As you’ll be able to think about this complete episode has been distressing for me and my household.
“I’ll start my return to the unit within the coming weeks. I’ll want colleagues to be delicate and supportive at the moment.”
Letby by no means returned to the unit, which the inquiry beforehand heard was right down to the “persistence” of consultants who suspected her of being a assassin.
The inquiry additionally heard from a nurse who recalled Letby telling her in regards to the demise of a kid in an “excited” and “gossipy” manner.
Melanie Taylor stated she couldn’t keep in mind which child’s demise Letby was referring to, however recalled how she spoke about it.
She stated: “It was nearly in a manner that she was excited to inform me, nearly in a gossipy method.”
The inquiry at Liverpool City Corridor is inspecting how the killer nurse was capable of homicide and assault infants on the neonatal unit on the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016.
Rachel Langdale KC, counsel to the inquiry, requested Ms Taylor if the way in which Letby spoke in regards to the child’s demise struck her as uncommon or disrespectful.
Ms Taylor stated: “Sure, it did. There have been components of [Letby’s] persona that had been somewhat unusual to me, so I took that as a persona distinction between me and her.”
The inquiry additionally heard about textual content messages Letby had written in regards to the demise of a child who was later discovered to be one in all her victims.
Ms Taylor stated the message confirmed a “lack of compassion”.
Within the messages, Letby stated she needed to get again to the nursery the place the boy died to recover from the demise.
Her colleague replied Letby wanted to “let it go or it’ll eat you up”.
Letby stated: “I want to return and have a sick child [to take care of], in any other case the picture of the one you’ve misplaced by no means leaves you.”
Ms Taylor informed the inquiry she had by no means heard of going again to the unit the place a demise occurred as a manner of coping with or getting over trauma.
When requested what she thought of Letby wanting to return to the nursery the place the child had died, Ms Taylor stated it was “extremely inappropriate”, including: “The textual content messages I’ve seen present a scarcity of compassion.”
Ms Taylor informed the inquiry she didn’t have any suspicions on the time that Letby may very well be harming infants.
“That’s an unthinkable factor in a manner.
“Nursing is a occupation the place you place your belief in one another, and I imply this isn’t an occasion that occurs in anyone’s lifetime.”
Letby, 34, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after being convicted of murdering seven infants and making an attempt to homicide seven others, with two makes an attempt on one in all her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.
The inquiry is anticipated to take a seat till early subsequent 12 months, with findings revealed by late autumn 2025.