Lucy Letby’s former boss has said she “didn’t get everything right” but had the “best intentions” in dealing with concerns about the baby killer.
She also said a nurse harming patients hadn’t been “in the forefront of my mind” even though it was “not unheard of”.
Alison Kelly was director of nursing, as well as lead for children’s safeguarding, at Countess of Chester Hospital when Letby attacked babies between June 2015 and June 2016.
She was in charge when Letby was moved to admin duties in July 2016 after consultants said they were worried she might be harming babies.
However, police were not called until May 2017 – following hospital bosses commissioning several reviews into the increased mortality rate.
Letby is sentenced to 15 whole-life terms for seven murders and seven attempted murders.
On Monday, Ms Kelly began her testimony at the Thirlwall inquiry by saying: “I would like to express my condolences to all the families and I’m really sorry for all the distress that the families have experienced over the last few years, and are currently experiencing as we sit here today.
“I didn’t get everything right. However, the decisions I made were with the best intentions.”
She said neonatal clinical lead Dr Stephen Brearey had told her on 11 May 2016 about concerns over a rise in the number of babies dying but had not voiced concerns over deliberate harm.
Ms Kelly said Letby was discussed but the nursing team had given her “assurances” about the 34-year-old.
“There was nothing clearly articulated in that meeting. We all felt by the end of that meeting that we could review the situation in a number of weeks’ time,” she told the inquiry.
Regarding the deaths of two triplet boys in June 2016, Ms Kelly said there had been “no articulation of actual issues” from the consultants.
“There was never any clarity again. Nobody had seen her do anything. There were terms used like gut feeling… which did not pinpoint any particular issues with Letby,” she said.
The inquiry heard consultants had told Ms Kelly and other managers that six out of nine babies had died at night but that the pattern stopped when Letby was put on days.
They also said some of the babies hadn’t responded to resuscitation as expected.
‘Hearsay of consultants’
Ms Kelly said they had balanced these facts with “how highly regarded she [Letby] was thought of” among her nursing peers.
“We needed to get more facts, we needed to pull more things together to see what the fuller picture was at the time,” she told the inquiry in Liverpool.
“We had no actual evidence as in nobody had seen her do anything. There was broadbrush statements, there was no evidence provided to us at that time.
“I think we needed to look at everything in the round in terms of clinical outcomes as well as looking at one individual. I didn’t take the hearsay of consultants as evidence at the time.”
Ms Kelly also said she hadn’t regarded the increase in babies’ mortality as a safeguarding issue.
Under questioning by Nicholas de la Poer KC, she said she believed “trust had broken down” on the neo-natal unit and it “became divisive between the nurses and the doctors”.
Ms Kelly said she had relied on the opinions of the senior nursing team, particularly unit ward manager Eirian Powell, “who knew her [Letby] best”.
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On why police were not called in July 2016, when Letby was put on admin duties, she told the inquiry that managers “didn’t really have a sense of what was going on”.
She said: “I think we had a general conversation about the fact that we all personally needed to know and understand what was actually going on in our organisation so that we could clearly articulate to the police what the problems were.”
Lady Justice Thirlwall is in charge of the inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall. Pic: PA
Last week, a doctor told the inquiry it’s likely Letby murdered or attacked more children than is currently known.
She also recently lost her bid to appeal against her July 2024 retrial conviction for the attempted murder of a baby girl.
The Thirlwall public inquiry is expected to publish its findings in autumn next year.
