The Thirlwall Inquiry into killer nurse Lucy Letby’s crimes heard from former hospital chief executive Tony Chambers, who said he told the 34-year-old ‘you astound me’ during a meeting
A hospital boss told killer nurse Lucy Letby “you astound me” after she was stopped from looking after babies over fears she was hurting them.
The conversation between Letby and then-hospital chief executive Tony Chambers took place in December 2016 – a few months after the child serial killer was moved to an administrative role at the NHS Countess of Chester Hospital amid fears from consultant paediatricians that she may have been deliberately harming infants. Letby then went on to launch a grievance against her employers, which was upheld in December, over the decision to remove her from the neonatal unit.
The Thirlwall Inquiry into events surrounding Letby’s crimes heard that now-convicted murderer Letby was said to have felt consultants Dr Stephen Brearey and Dr Ravi Jayaram had “orchestrated a campaign” against her and that some doctors on the unit referred to her publicly as “angel of death” and “murderer on the unit”. In a meeting between Letby, her parents, John and Sue, and Mr Chambers on December 22 2016, dad Mr Letby called for the “instant dismissal” of the two consultants.
Mr Chambers told the inquiry that the father was “very angry” and began “making threats” during the meeting. Giving evidence on Wednesday, Mr Chambers said: “Letby’s family, it is fair to say, were very upset and very angry about how they felt she had been treated unfairly by the trust. I’m prepared to accept that we had not been open and honest with her at the time. Letby’s father was very angry, he was making threats. He was making threats that would have just made an already difficult situation even worse by threatening GMC (General Medical Council) referrals to the doctors. He was threatening guns to my head and all sorts of things.”
During the meeting, Mr Chambers told Letby: “Your resilience, Lucy, you astound me.” Mr Chambers told the inquiry: “I say it twice.”
Counsel to the inquiry Nicholas de la Poer KC asked: “Have you ever made such a statement in relation to the consultants for the bravery they showed when trying to speak out to keep babies safe?” Mr Chambers said: “Yes, in many of the meetings that took place during July 2016. If you look at the notes, all of the meeting notes end with a reference to thanking everyone for their contributions, for their open candid contributions to the discussion and a very clear statement about these matters being really difficult, let’s take care and look after each other.”
Mr Chambers went on to ask the consultants to apologise to Letby for the alleged derogatory remarks, the inquiry has heard, and a follow-up meeting took place with Letby and her mother in early February 2017. Letby told Mr Chambers she wanted individual apologies from four consultants in particular.
Mr de la Poer said: “Bringing in hindsight, she is sitting there knowing the crimes she has committed. Would you agree that was deeply manipulative behaviour?”
Mr Chambers said: “I have to say I didn’t feel I was manipulated at the time, I really don’t know. It was her father who seemed to be pulling the strings as opposed to herself. In handling these matters with Letby, I was very conscious to try as much as possible to avoid further escalation particularly from her father. Her father was not at this meeting but you got a sense of his presence.”
Mr Chambers also told Letby: “Lucy, don’t worry, we have got your back.” Asked for his response to that comment, Mr Chambers said: “Clumsy language. The intention here was to avoid any possible escalation. Eight years on with what we know and we look at this, these are the kind of things you know you didn’t get right.”
Letby, 34, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016. The Thirlwall Inquiry, which is taking place at Liverpool Town Hall before Lady Justice Thirlwall, is expected to sit until early 2025 with findings published by late autumn that year.
