UK arrests hospital officials where nurse killed babies

Police arrested three leaders of a hospital in northwestern England on suspicion of manslaughter, officials said Tuesday. The three officials ran the Countess of Chester Hospital, where Lucy Letby worked before she was convicted in 2023 for killing seven infants under her care and attempting to kill seven more. Letby was ordered to serve several life sentences and has never stopped insisting on her innocence. Police did not release the names of those arrested, but noted that they have since been released on bail.

How are these three being implicated in Letby’s actions? Officials were investigating the trio for gross negligence manslaughter after probing the hospital after Letby’s conviction, according to Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes of the Cheshire Constabulary. Justice Kathryn Thirlwall was assigned to launch a public accountability probe into how Letby caused such harm right under the noses of hospital staff and management. Hughes described the probe focusing on whether leaders behaved criminally while responding to the rise in neonatal deaths at the hospital.

Authorities previously noted that the number of babies with unexplained health crises rose whenever Letby was on shift. Evidence presented in court showed that Letby’s methods of harm left little to no evidence, like injecting air into infants’ bloodstreams or using insulin to poison them. Thirlwall is expected to publish the probe’s findings this fall.

Dig deeper: Read my previous report on Letby’s 2023 conviction.