The former chief executive of the hospital where Lucy Letby murdered seven babies said the father of the serial killer “made threats” in “angry meetings”.
Tony Chambers was in charge at the Countess of Chester hospital during 2015 and 2016, when the nurse also attempted to murder seven other infants.
Mr Chambers told the public inquiry into the circumstances around Letby’s offending that he and his fellow board members “simply didn’t see” what was behind the rising death rate amongst babies on the neonatal unit.
He also apologised to the families of Letby’s victims “for the pain that may have been prolonged by any decisions or actions that I took in good faith”.
Nicholas de la Poer KC, counsel to the inquiry, asked Mr Chambers about meetings he held with Letby and her family in December 2016.
This came after managers upheld a grievance she had lodged with the hospital in September that year, about being removed from the neonatal unit and placed onto clerical duties due to accusations against her by senior consultants.
The Thirlwall Inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall heard that during that meeting, Mr Chambers told Letby she would be returning to the unit and accepted saying to her: “For your resilience Lucy, you astound me.”
He said Letby’s father, John Letby, wanted to report the consultants who accused his daughter of harming babies to the regulator the General Medical Council (GMC).
“Letby’s father was very angry, he was making threats,” he said.
“He was making threats that would have made an already difficult situation even worse by threatening GMC referrals for the doctors.
“He was threatening guns to my head.”
PA MediaMr Chambers said he felt he had “perhaps” not handled that meeting well but said he was trying to “take the heat out” of the situation with Letby’s father.
At one meeting, Letby demanded any mention of her being taken off the unit be removed from her personnel file, and said she wanted “four apologies” from the consultants who had raised suspicions about her.
Mr de la Poer asked: “Would you agree that this was deeply manipulative behaviour?”
Mr Chambers replied: “I didn’t feel that I was being manipulated at the time….
“It was the father who seemed to be pulling the strings rather than Letby herself.”
He accepted he told her “don’t worry Lucy, we’ve got your back”, which he said in hindsight was “clumsy language”.
He also told her a review of neonatal mortality by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) in September 2016 had “vindicated” her.
Mr Chambers told the inquiry he accepts the RCPCH review did not vindicate Letby because it had not investigated any link between her and the deaths – although he said it did not indicate anything suspicious.
“I was very conscious to try as much as possible to avoid further escalation particularly from her father”, he said.
Mr de la Poer asked: “If it was an attempt by Lucy Letby to take control and get what she wanted, and go on the offensive, she succeeded in recruiting you to that.
“Do you agree?”
Mr Chambers said: “No I don’t think so at all”, adding that he believed Letby just wanted to “get back to the job she loved”.
Cheshire ConstabularyEarlier the inquiry heard that Mr Chambers held a meeting with consultant paediatricians on 29 June 2016, which, he said, was the first time he had been told there were concerns about Letby’s links to unexplained deaths and collapses of babies.
He told the inquiry the concerns about Letby were “very shocking” to hear, but that “we wouldn’t jump to criminality as the causal factor”.
Mr Chambers said: “There was strong rebuttal to the proposition that this one nurse was deliberately causing harm.
“There was a very strong level of support for this individual.”
Letby was due to go on leave for a fortnight after 30 June and afterwards was placed onto clerical duties, never returning to the unit.
Mr de la Poer asked about a meeting on 27 March 2017, when consultant Dr Stephen Brearey told Mr Chambers the police should be called in.
Mr Chambers said that at that meeting the agreement was made to contact police, but he did not write to the chief constable of Cheshire Constabulary until 2 May, after consulting with criminal barrister Simon Medland QC.
However, Mr de la Poer suggested that, in his initial contact with the police, Mr Chambers “did not present the case at its highest” and was trying to “discourage” an investigation.
Mr Chambers responded “absolutely not”, and said the hospital “shared with police very openly and candidly what we genuinely believed to be the position as we understood it at the time”.
The inquiry continues.
