Lucy Letby quizzed over MORE baby murders

Detectives have interviewed Lucy Letby in prison over the alleged murders of more babies.

The killer nurse was quizzed under caution over unexpected deaths and collapses of infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

And she was also questioned – for what is believed to be the first time – about cases at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where she trained as a student.

The 34-year-old former neo-natal nurse is already serving a rare whole-life sentence for murdering seven babies and trying to kill seven more at the Countess of Chester Hospital over a 13-month killing spree.

Following her convictions, in August last year, Cheshire Police began a review of all 4,000 babies she cared for during the ‘footprint’ of her career, which dates back to January 2012, and includes two training placements at the Liverpool hospital.

Sources have told the Mail that any charges, if they are brought, won’t be laid until ‘well into the New Year’.

Cheshire Police said tonight: ‘We can confirm that, following agreement, Lucy Letby has recently been interviewed in prison under caution in relation to the ongoing investigation into baby deaths and non-fatal collapses at the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital. Further updates will follow.’ Police would not say exactly when the interview took place or how many specific cases Letby – one of only four women sentenced to a whole-life term in UK legal history – was questioned about.

She is currently incarcerated in HMP Bronzefield, in Ashford, Surrey, which caters for category A women prisoners. The interview was pre-arranged and her legal representative was present.

Letby was convicted last year of seven charges of murder and seven of attempted murder – one child she tried to kill twice.

She was subsequently found guilty of an eighth attempted murder charge against another premature baby girl, following a retrial in July.

She is serving 15 whole-life tariffs and earlier this year was refused leave to appeal her convictions, meaning she will die in jail.

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Letby was on duty, or had been working the shift prior, for 12 of 13 baby deaths that occurred at the Countess between March 2015 and July 2016.

Last month Dr Stephen Brearey, the senior paediatrician on the neo-natal unit at the Countess, told the public inquiry that is looking into her crimes that he believes she is ‘likely’ to have murdered or attacked more babies before she killed her first victim, a premature twin boy known as Baby A, in June 2015.

He said, looking back, he now has suspicions about other deaths and collapses.

Dr Rachel Lambie, who worked as a registrar at the Countess, has also told the hearings, before Lady Justice Thirlwall, that around a fortnight before Baby A died another ‘very, very unusual event’ occurred on the ward.

Although she didn’t go into details, the doctor confirmed she has since given a statement to detectives about the incident. Dr Dewi Evans, the former lead prosecution witness at Letby’s original trial, also previously told the Mail he has concerns over the deaths of at least three children and the collapses of as many as 15 more, including one potentially poisoned with insulin, all of which were not on the original indictment.

He said he had suspicions that Letby experimented with moving babies’ breathing tubes as a method of causing harm before she began injecting air into their bloodstreams, or into their stomachs via their nasal feeding tubes in a bid to kill.

‘One thing we can be reasonably sure of is that Lucy Letby did not turn up to work one day and decide to inject a baby with air into their bloodstream,’ Dr Evans said. ‘I think the modus operandi evolved over time and I think that prior to air embolus, tube displacement was probably something that she did.’

The inquiry has heard that babies breathing tubes became dislodged on 40 per cent of shifts Letby worked at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, between October and December 2012, and January and February 2015.

According to the BBC, babies suffered potentially life-threatening incidents on almost a third of the 33 shifts she worked while training at the Liverpool Trust.

In one case, from November 2012, a baby boy being cared for by Letby collapsed and water was later discovered in his breathing tube, which experts say is highly irregular.

It is understood Letby was not formally arrested and voluntarily agreed to take part in the recent interview.

The news comes after more than 50 specialists, including neonatologists, anaesthetists, pathologists, biochemists, toxicologists, statisticians, former senior NHS managers and retired police officers gathered at a central London venue this weekend to discuss flaws in the case against her.