A new investigation has been launched into the role of a doctor, 20 years older than Letby, who had been on shift when the nurse murdered two triplets in June 2016
The ‘boyfriend’ of killer nurse Lucy Letby is being investigated over alleged information he gave her about one of the babies she tried to murder.
Letby, 35, is serving 15 life sentences after being convicted for murdering seven babies and tying to murder seven more at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
The apparent boyfriend can’t be named for legal reasons but is accused of sharing information with Letby about Baby N. The man, who is married and 20 years older than Letby, is also being investigated over his requests to have Letby watch him perform surgeries on children.
He organised the trips even after the killer nurse had been moved to an administrative role over concerns about the horrifying number of deaths of babies on her ward.
He had been on shift when the nurse murdered two triplets in June 2016. In September that same year he sent her a message describing her as “the best neonatal nurse” he’d ever worked with.
The pair were found to have exchanged more than 1,300 messages and the prosecution described him Letby’s “boyfriend”. The jury in her trial also heard how they would travel down to London and go out for dinners together.
One of the notes in Letby’s apartment had his name on it, reading: “I loved you and I think you knew that … I wanted you to stand by me but you didn’t.”
Both Letby and the doctor have denied having a relationship. The mum of Baby N launched a complaint against the doctor claiming he breached confidentiality rules by sharing information about her child.
She added: “He discussed my son and passed on his condition whilst he was still on the [neonatal unit at Countess of Chester Hospital] and when he had been transferred to [the consultant’s next hospital] due to her attack on him.
“There was no legal basis for him for breaching confidentiality; he also shared confidential emails, which were meant to be between consultants only, with her.”
The doctor later told a public inquiry into the Letby case he was not aware of any mounting suspicions against her at the time. He said he was “misled and maybe manipulated” by the killer so she could get information.
A fresh probe was launched by the hospital looking into his involvement with Letby around Baby N. The investigation came to light in a High Court ruling on Thursday in which the doctor argued the hospital had breached his employment contract over the investigation.