A doctor who helped convict Lucy Letby has said he lives with “tiny, tiny guilt” that they may have caught the “wrong person”, despite still believing that the nurse was behind the deaths of seven babies.
Consultant paediatrician Dr John Gibbs told the new Netflix documentary: “I live with two guilts. Guilt that we let the babies down, and tiny tiny tiny guilt – did we get the wrong person?
“There’s guilt you know just in case, miscarriage of justice. I don’t think there was a miscarriage of justice, but you worry that no one actually saw her do it.”
The serial killer nurse is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted 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 documentary film features new testimony from police and contributions from the mother of a victim, the first time a family member has spoken publicly.
Among those interviewed is Dr Gibbs, who was among the group of consultants from Countess of Chester Hospital who became concerned after a spate of baby deaths on the neonatal unit in June 2015.
He described Letby as a “quiet nurse” who had appeared “conscientious”, but that a string of unexpected collapses and deaths had caused serious concern – and the common denominator was that Letby had played a “central role” on each occasion.
During his evidence at the Thirlwall Inquiry, which is due to be published this year, Dr Gibbs said he felt “ashamed” for failing to protect babies from the former nurse, and felt he and his colleagues were “at fault” for not bypassing management to share their concerns with the police in 2016. The hospital did not formally contact Cheshire Constabulary for almost a year.
While the documentary features police involved in the case and a prosecution expert, it also includes those who doubt her conviction, including her new barrister Mark McDonald and a panel of global experts.
In clips shown of a press conference last year, Dr Shoo Lee, a Canadian neonatal care expert, said there were alternative explanations for each of Letby’s convictions for murder or attempted murder.
He said at the time: “In all cases, death or injury were due to natural causes or just bad medical care.”
Referring to this in the documentary, Dr Gibbs said: “Professor Lee was very clear that harm had not been deliberately inflicted on any of the babies and it was substandard care that had led to the babies collapsing. In some of them, their death.
“It’s frustrating because in some of their criticisms, there’s a kernel of truth. We were understaffed. That’s generally true in most departments or most wards in the NHS but we’d had those same staffing pressures before 2015 and we’d not had these deaths.”
Referring to Dr Lee being introduced by the MP and Letby supporter Sir David Davis as the “star of the show”, one of the victims’ mothers said: “This is not a show. There is no star. This is nothing to smile about. The audacity from a politician to introduce someone like this, it is disgusting.”
Sarah’s baby daughter Zoe* died unexpectedly in June 2015, and was the third baby to die in just over two weeks on the neonatal unit. Despite being born prematurely, she was making good progress when she suddenly deteriorated and was pronounced dead.
She later recognised Letby “straightaway” from the news reports after she was charged. “When I visited Zoe for the first time, she had a clipboard but she wasn’t actually doing any jobs. She was just there, watching us,” she said.
Meanwhile, Letby’s close friend Maisie, who studied alongside her to become a nurse, told the documentary that Letby had been an eager nurse with a “quirky sense of humour”, but had initially struggled to fit in with other nursing staff at the hospital.
“I started to think that some people were going out of their way to make things hard for Lucy. There was absolutely nothing I can think that made them treat her that way, except for the fact that they didn’t like that she was shy and quiet,” she said.
Prison letters sent to Maisie from Letby in the months before her trial include her attempts to remain positive and concern for her cats, Tigger and Smudge. She wrote: “There are no words to describe my situation, but knowing that I have your friendship, regardless, is so important and special to me. I have my own room and toilet. I’m able to shower each day and go outside for a walk.”
She continued: “I’m trying to do all that I can to remain strong and positive. I’m determined to get through this; I will not give up.”
Letby’s parents have criticised the decision to include footage of her arrests, which took place inside their family home.
On one of the occasions, she breaks down in tears and asks to hug her cat, while on the second, she appears shocked as she is arrested on suspicion of murder while sitting in her bed. Her mother can be heard crying as Letby tells her, “You know I didn’t do it”, before again requesting to see her cat.
In a statement to The Sunday Times, the couple said: “The previous programmes made about Lucy, including Panorama and the almost nightly news showing her being brought out handcuffed in a blue tracksuit are heartbreaking for us.
“However, this Netflix documentary is on another level. We had no idea they were using footage in our house. We will not watch it – it would likely kill us if we did.
Last month, it was confirmed that the former child nurse will face no further charges over additional deaths and collapses of babies that were investigated by police.
Cheshire Constabulary passed evidence to prosecutors last year, linked to eight potential additional offences of attempted murder and one offence of murder at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
In a rare step, Cheshire Constabulary spoke out publicly against the decision, which it said was “not the outcome that we had anticipated throughout our investigation”.
A group of campaigners is backing Letby and has submitted reports to legal review body, the Criminal Cases Review Commission, to try to get her convictions overturned.
The Investigation of Lucy Letby will release globally on Netflix on Wednesday February 4.
