Lucy Letby is rumored to have turned down consultant offers, investigation reveals

Lucy Letby rejected advances from a consultant who “made it clear he was interested in her”, a public inquiry has heard.

The alleged omission was one of “many rumors” circulating after Lethby was removed from the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in July 2016 following a series of sudden and unexplained infant deaths and collapses.

Letby was transferred to clerical duties after all seven consultant pediatricians told hospital management they feared she was deliberately harming babies.

The nurse complained to the health trust about her removal and a later complaint hearing concluded that no evidence of any wrongdoing had been provided.

Letby never returned to her duties on the neonatal unit but continued to work at the hospital until she was arrested in July 2018, more than a year after Cheshire Police were finally called to investigate.

The independent chair of the complaint hearing, which took place in December 2016, later told Cheshire Police that at the time she felt Lethby was the victim of a “witch hunt”.

Annette Weatherly told police: “The consultants were doing their own investigation, whatever they were doing, whether they liked her or didn’t like her, there were a lot of rumors going around.

“They decided it was her, she was a child killer. She was openly spoken of as a child killer. They went to the foundation and said: “She’s a child killer, we don’t want her in the department.”

One of the rumors outlined by Ms Weatherly concerned advances made by Letby to a consultant, as reported in the Thirlwall Inquiry into the events surrounding the murderous nurse’s crimes.

Ms Weatherly told detectives: “I can’t remember who said it but there were rumors… the consultant made it clear he was interested in her and she rejected it.”

The officer asked, “What, physically?”

Ms Weatherly replied: “Yes, physically. Someone told me that, I don’t remember who it was when I was there, but there were rumors.”

Earlier in the investigation, it was reported that Letby denied to a nurse manager that neonatal clinic manager Dr Stephen Breery or children’s services manager Dr Ravi Jayaram had ever assaulted her.

Karen Rees, then head of the emergency department, said she wondered whether there were “personal motives” behind the concerns expressed about Lethby by both consultants.

She said: “I asked her if any of them had ever approached her. She replied: “Absolutely not.”

Letby, 34, from Hereford, is serving 15 life sentences after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court between June 2015 and June 2016 of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of seven others, as well as two attempts on the life of one of her victims.

The investigation is expected to last until early 2025, with the results published by the end of autumn of that year.