Lucy Letby face of babygrow fundraising appeal at hospital where she killed newborns

The Thirlwall inquiry heard how Lucy Letby appeared on leaflets and posters for the Countess of Chester Hospital’s multi-million pound Babygrow Appeal before she was found to have murdered seven infants

Lucy Letby was once the "face" of a babygrow-themed fundraising appeal for the hospital unit where she murdered seven babies, an inquiry has heard.

The serial killer nurse appeared on leaflets and posters for the Countess of Chester Hospital’s multi-million pound Babygrow Appeal, which launched in 2013 to raise funds for a brand new neonatal unit. Letby also provided a staff profile printed in the Chester Standard in the early weeks of the campaign. Two years later, she was pictured in the same newspaper with colleagues as they celebrated reaching the halfway target mark for the fundraiser.

Giving evidence on Tuesday at the Thirlwall Inquiry into events surrounding Letby’s crimes, the hospital’s former chief financial officer Simon Holden said: “There was various promotional material and leaflets and posters, and Lucy Letby appeared on quite a few of those. Nurse Letby was the face of that appeal in effect.”

Letby was moved from the unit in July 2016 to an administrative role at the hospital after consultant paediatricians voiced fears she may have deliberately harmed infants in the wake of the deaths of two triplet boys.

Mr Holden recalled that conversations about the charity appeal followed in meetings with hospital executives but he said Letby’s name did not come up. He said: “To be quite honest I didn’t know who Lucy Letby was so I wouldn’t put the face with the name at the time. I had only just arrived in a trust that employed 6,000 people. I think what was relevant was the neonatal appeal was definitely a consideration discussed, what do we do? Do we pause it? Do we keep it going?”

He said it later became apparent that all the promotional documentation “had Lucy Letby’s picture on it”. In her staff profile, Letby, who started work full time at the neonatal unit from January 2012, told the Chester Standard: “My role involves caring for a wide range of babies requiring various levels of support.

“Some are here for a few days, others for many months and I enjoy seeing them progress and supporting their families. I hope the new unit will provide a greater degree of privacy and space for parents and siblings.” The replacement unit opened in 2021, although it will be relocated to a new women and children’s building due to open next summer.

Last week, the inquiry heard that Lucy Letby's dad threatened to put a gun to a hospital chief executive's head while the trust examined claims that she had been hurting babies in her care. Tony Chambers, the former chief executive of the Countess of Chester Hospital, told the Thirlwall Inquiry: "Her father was very angry, he was making threats that would have just made an already difficult situation even worse. He was threatening guns to my head and all sorts of things."

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 inquiry, sitting at Liverpool Town Hall, is expected to sit until early 2025, with findings published by late autumn of that year.