‘Lucy Letby was annoyed with us because she didn’t succeed in killing our babies’: Parents of twins who survived relive moment nurse tried to murder them – and demand to know why hospital bosses left their newborns at the mercy of serial killer

A couple whose twin sons survived Lucy Letby’s sadistic attempts to kill them says she was ‘annoyed’ at her own failure as they demanded a public inquiry into why hospital bosses left their newborns at her mercy. 

The parents, whose baby boys were attacked by the neo-natal nurse on the same shift, called for managers at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire to be held ‘accountable.’ 

They believe most of Letby’s victims might have either lived or been saved from harm had senior hospital executives heeded the warnings of their own doctors a few months into her terrifying campaign of murder. 

The couple and their children cannot be named for legal reasons and their sons were known during the trial as Baby L and Baby M. Baby L was poisoned with insulin, while his younger brother, Baby M, was injected with air and almost died. He needed 30 minutes of CPR before he ‘miraculously’ came back to life but has been left with brain damage. 

Shockingly, the boys’ parents only found out about the attack on Baby L when police called at the family home more than two years later.

The parents, whose baby boys were attacked by the neo-natal nurse on the same shift, called for managers at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire to be held ‘accountable’

Lucy Letby, 33, was found guilty of murdering premature babies in her care 

Alison Kelly was the director of nursing and quality and had been on a salary of £130,000 at the time Letby went on her killing spree. She has been singled out for criticism

Their father, a senior support analyst, singled out the hospital’s then director of nursing, Alison Kelly, for failing to take decisive action after the first three baby deaths and a near fatality at Countess of Chester Hospital in June 2015. 

‘There should definitely be a public inquiry,’ he told MailOnline. ‘The head of nursing needs to be accountable. She refused to take Lucy Letby out of the unit. She didn’t listen to the doctors and the thing has just carried on.

‘She made that decision. She could have stopped this long before if she’d taken responsibility. She could have been taken off the unit and put her in another role while they investigated fully.’ 

He said ‘multiple deaths’ would have been averted had Letby been investigated properly.

His wife, a part-time carer, added: ‘Why did they wait until 2016? As soon as two or three babies died, why wait until 17 babies were harmed? I blame them.’ 

The trial was told that ‘an association’ with Letby being on shift when babies collapsed or died was first made as early as June 2015, after the first three infants were killed. Concerns were raised with Ms Kelly again four months later, in October, and then raised again with her, and medical director Ian Harvey, in February 2016.

TV medic Dr Ravi Jayaram, who regularly appears on the BBC’s One Show and ITV’s This Morning, told the jury that he and his fellow consultants were ‘fobbed off’ by management and nothing was done.  

Even in June 2016, following the deaths of Baby O and his fellow triplet Baby P, hospital bosses initially refused to intervene.

The neonatal unit’s lead paediatrician, Stephen Brearey, rang Karen Rees, the duty executive in urgent care, to say he didn’t want Letby to come into work the following day, but she turned him down.

The father of Baby L and Baby M said: ‘If they’d acted on the initial suspicions it would have stopped any more babies being attacked. It would have prevented multiple deaths.

‘They need to be accountable for the decisions they made. They’re not minor decisions. They do need to be put in front of a judge’.

Letby poisoned Baby L with insulin, while his slightly younger brother Baby N was either injected with air or else had his airway obstructed 

His wife, a part-time carer, added: As soon as two or three babies died, why did they wait until 17 babies?’

The couple are also concerned that the registrar Letby was in love with had forwarded her a confidential email about a review into the deaths of the two triplets. ‘It’s a definite breach that needs to be investigated’.

They recalled feeling ‘over the moon’ at having two healthy twins as their first children. Ironically, Letby had been present at their birth. His parents travelled up from London to see the boys and were able to hold them.

Then came the nightmare of Baby M’s collapse on April 9, 2016. ‘Everything was going well,’ said the father. ‘Then within 15 minutes a nurse came charging upstairs shouting ”You need to come back down”.

‘I was the first one into the unit and the image I saw was just horrendous. That image, I’ll never forget, it’s (etched) on my brain. I saw doctors around him, pumping his heart just like a rag doll. I was in floods of tears and didn’t know what to think. 

‘We’re first time parents, we didn’t know what was going on.’ 

Dr Jayaram led the efforts to save Baby M, but after 30 minutes the father thought he was ‘ready to give up’.

‘Then all of a sudden (Baby) M came back to life out of nowhere and by the grace of God he’s ok today. The doctors told us that kind of thing happens to premature babies, and at the time we believed what they were telling us because we didn’t know any different’.

His wife recalled one of the nurses, Mary Griffith, saying ‘I’ve not done anything, I’ve not done anything’. Letby was behind her. ‘She was just standing there, very calm and cool. At the time I didn’t know her name. I only found out later’.

She added: ‘I was just praying to my god, (asking) what had happened to my child. I’ve not done anything wrong in my life to anybody, so why do I have to suffer? And then after 30 minutes he recovered’.

In the aftermath of Baby M’s recovery Letby appeared to be ‘more aggressive’ towards them. ‘I think she was very annoyed with us because she didn’t succeed in killing our babies. She was very frustrated’. 

The father revealed Letby had texted them while their children were in hospital, saying: ‘People do text during work but this is excessive texting all the time. You don’t have time to text, feed and give an injection.’

The couple were relieved to see both boys discharged from the Countess on May 3, 2016. They accepted what had happened to Baby M but had no idea of the attempt on his brother’s life.

A note found in Letby’s house that had the word ‘hate’ circled and added: ‘I am evil I did this’ 

When the police called at their home to tell them they both broke down in shock. ‘We couldn’t believe it. We were shocked because the hospital hadn’t told us’.

Despite staff at the Countess being given the proof that Baby L had been poisoned with manufactured insulin, they failed to pass on the information to his parents.

The mother said: ‘We range every day morning and evening and asked how they were and they said they were ”very well”. It’s unbelievable.’    

The past seven years have been ‘hell’ for the parents. He has suffered a seizure brought on by stress, and feels he is no longer ‘happy go lucky’ and ‘always smiling’. His wife worries constantly about his health and she is angry with Letby for ‘lying, lying, lying’ every time she gave evidence.

They desperately hope Letby will spend the rest of her life behind bars. ‘She’s tried to take our babies’ lives, so whatever sentence she gets is not going to be enough,’ said the father. It’s going to be justice, but it’s not going to be enough’.

His wife said simply: ‘I want a proper sentence. A life sentence’.

Baby L still suffers from night sweats, while his brother has been left with permanent brain damage by Letby’s attempt on his life. His father said: ‘At the moment if you look at him he’s just like a normal child, so it’s just something we’ll have to keep monitoring over the years’.

The mother said she felt ‘sick’ listening to Letby’s lies in the witness box and claimed the ‘calculated and criminally-minded’ nurse had taken ‘everything,’ all the ‘joy and happiness’ from her family.

The father added: ‘She means nothing (to me). She’s just an evil person. There’s no way she should have been able to get away with it for so long.’

He said he hoped Letby would receive a whole life tariff and never be freed from jail. 

The family have become close to the parents of Baby F, whose twin, Baby E, was one of the killer’s seven murder victims. They are saddened that F has been left severely disabled.

The twins are now ‘normal, boisterous’ youngsters who enjoy riding their bikes and playing football. They both know they were attacked by Letby as babies because their parents didn’t want them to find out from someone outside the family.

‘They make a joke of it,’ said their mother. ‘They say ‘We will kick her, we will bite her, we will pull her hair mummy. But they don’t understand yet’.

The parents said they are worried Baby M might not reach the same milestones as his brother or peers because of his brain damage. 

His mother became tearful as she added: ‘I love my kids too much, even when they’re arguing or fighting. They are my life. When we heard what Lucy did to our kids we broke down. Previously we were happy’.

The father said the family had been upset by attempts by Letby’s barrister to discredit Dr Jayaram.

He and his wife believe M is alive today because of the paediatrician’s expertise and professionalism.

‘Dr Jayaram is our hero – he saved our son and without his expertise and professionalism I don’t know where we would be today’.