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Three former bosses at the hospital where Lucy Letby murdered babies have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, Cheshire Police announced today.
The senior executives, who worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital during the neo-natal nurse’s killing spree, were quizzed by detectives yesterday after being invited to attend separate police stations across Cheshire. They have since been bailed pending further enquiries.
Their arrests form part of Cheshire Constabulary’s ongoing inquiry into corporate manslaughter at the NHS Trust, where Letby murdered seven premature infants and harmed seven more between June 2015 and June 2016.
In March, Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, confirmed the corporate manslaughter investigation, codenamed Operation Duet, had been widened to include ‘the grossly negligent action or inaction of individuals.’
He said ‘those identified as suspects had been notified’ but refused to confirm any names.
The Mail is aware of the identities of those arrested but is not naming individuals.
Letby, 35, is serving 15 whole-life orders after being found guilty of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, at the hospital’s neo-natal unit.
She has twice had applications to challenge her convictions rejected by the Court of Appeal.
Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more following a trial at Manchester Crown Court
Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, who leads Operation Hummingbird, Cheshire Police’s investigation into Lucy Letby and the Countess of Chester Hospital
Lady Justice Thirlwall will report her findings from the public inquiry, which was held at Liverpool Town Hall, early next year
The Women and Children’s building which houses the neo-natal unit where Letby committed her crimes
According to an independent report, leaked to the Mail’s Trial+ podcast, in March, babies’ lives could have been saved if hospital bosses had acted sooner to remove Lucy Letby from working.
The report, commissioned by the Countess after Letby was first arrested, in July 2018, found managers were ‘inexperienced’ and missed 14 opportunities to suspend the nurse because they became ‘blinkered’ to the possibility she was responsible.
Instead of alerting the police, they commissioned a series of ineffectual external investigations, which failed to get to the bottom of why babies were unexpectedly collapsing and dying, the document said.
Executives also ‘ostracised’ and ‘bullied’ doctors when they continued to raise concerns and demand police be called in, the report, carried out by independent healthcare consultancy Facere Melius, which has been blocked from publication, concluded.
Although the report does not specifically reveal which babies might have lived, it makes clear that, by February 2016, at least two senior executives at the hospital knew about the link between Letby and the infant deaths.
She tried to kill four children, Babies K, L, M and N, and murdered two triplet brothers, Babies O and P, before being removed from frontline nursing in July that year.
‘Earlier action potentially would have reduced the number of baby deaths,’ the report said.
‘Had different decisions been made the spike in baby deaths would have been picked up sooner internally and externally, and potentially, lives could have been saved.’
At the recent public inquiry, which is investigating Letby’s crimes, senior management at the hospital faced serious criticism over their handling of the spike in deaths.
In their closing speeches, in March, lawyers for the infants’ families, accused executives of orchestrating a cover up to protect the reputation of the hospital, lying to the families and bullying the consultants who tried to raise the alarm.
Peter Skelton KC, who represents seven of Letby’s victims, said they displayed ‘a form of individual and corporate self-protection that should have no place in the NHS.’
Kate Blackwell KC, for the senior executives, said in her closing remarks that they now accepted they should have called in police sooner, but the barrister insisted it was never expressed to them in ‘stark’ terms that Letby was causing deliberate harm before June 2016 – when she attacked and murdered Babies O and P and was finally moved from frontline nursing into an administrative role.
Ms Blackwell said managers accepted they had failed to follow safeguarding policies, made mistakes in their communication with the babies’ parents and that there was a breakdown in their relationship with the paediatricians, who should have been better supported.
But she insisted all their decisions were taken ‘in good faith’ and they ‘vociferously denied’ claims they deliberately and knowingly ‘harboured’ a murderer or put the hospital’s reputation before the safety of babies in their care.
‘The senior managers have emphatically refuted the proposition that either their own reputation or that of the Trust was prioritised over safety,’ she added.
In law, an individual can be found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter if they negligently breach the duty of care they owe the person who died and it was ‘reasonably foreseeable’ that such a breach gave rise to a ‘serious and obvious risk of death.’ The circumstances of the breach also have to be ‘truly exceptionally bad and so reprehensible’ that it amounts to gross negligence.
Letby is serving 15 whole life sentences and has twice applied but failed to appeal her convictions. Her case is now being looked at by the Criminal Cases Review Commission
Letby spent 14 days giving evidence in the witness box at Manchester Crown Court
Neonatologist Professor Neena Modi, Letby’s barrister Mark McDonald, Sir David Davis MP and retired medic Dr Shoo Lee, during a press conference to announce ‘new medical evidence’ which they say casts doubts on her convictions
Mr Hughes, senior investigating officer for Operation Duet, said: ‘As part of our ongoing enquiries, on Monday 30th June three individuals who were part of the senior leadership team at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015-2016, were arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.
‘All three have subsequently been bailed pending further enquiries.
‘Both the corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter elements of the investigation are continuing and there are no set timescales for these.’
He added that today’s development does ‘not impact on the convictions of Lucy Letby for multiple offences of murder and attempted murder.’
‘Our investigation into the deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neo-natal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital between the period of 2012 to 2016 is also ongoing.’
Letby, of Hereford, has always maintained she is innocent and in April her new defence team submitted evidence from a panel of international experts to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the organisation that examines miscarriages of justice, in a bid to have her convictions overturned. The experts claim no murders took place and instead assert that the babies died or collapsed because of natural causes or poor care.
Following the announcement of the arrests, Mark McDonald, Letby’s new defence barrister, called for another inquiry into the ‘failings of the neonatal and paediatric medical care unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.’
‘Yet another press release from the police at a very sensitive time when the CCRC are looking at the case of Lucy Letby,’ Mr McDonald said. ‘Despite this the concerns many have raised will not go away, and we will continue to publicly discuss them.
‘The reality is that 26 internationally renowned experts have looked at this case and the lead expert has concluded that no crime was committed, no babies were murdered. What is needed is a proper and full public inquiry into the failings of the neonatal and paediatric medical care unit at the Countess of Chester hospital.’
