THE doctor was found unresponsive in his car before paramedics rushed him to hospital – where days later he died.
Consultant Mark Deakin had been fired from his hospital job hours before over a series of inappropriate texts he exchanged with baby killer nurse Lucy Letby a decade earlier. Now that Dr A can finally be unmasked following his tragic death on July 3, The Sun reveals the truth about their relationship.
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Deakin – who Letby called her “sweet prince” – was a prosecution witness at her trial, and his evidence was used to establish a possible psychological motive over claims she’d murdered seven babies.
The married registrar – referred to publicly as Doctor A due to reporting restrictions – had exchanged over a thousand “inappropriate” messages with the nurse, during what prosecutors said was an intense love affair that drove her crimes.
Letby, now 36, is serving 15 whole life orders after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more between June 2015 and June 2016.
The Sun revealed the medic had died after being found in his car on June 24 in a retail outlet car park 20 miles from his Cheshire home, and yesterday he could finally be named publicly for the first time.
It is understood the doctor, who was hauled before a disciplinary hearing in June, struggled with work issues following Letby’s August 2023 convictions.
Their exchanges included confidential information regarding details of the care given to Baby N, an infant Letby was later convicted of attempting to murder.
So what is known of the registrar? And was he, as prosecutors claim, Letby’s lover?
At Letby’s 2022 trial Deakin successfully applied for anonymity.
He said he “suffered from severe anxiety for four years and believed he would struggle to give clear and accurate answers in court if his true identity was revealed”.
His application for a blanket ban on being named was granted by a judge and he gave evidence from behind a screen at Manchester Crown Court.
When he was called to give evidence four months into her initial trial in February, 2023, it was the first time Letby had shown any emotion.
Other medical staff at the Countess of Chester hospital where Letby and Deakin worked were also granted anonymity.
Hearing his voice, the neonatal nurse leapt from her seat in the glass-panelled witness box and headed for its exit.
After a hushed conversation with a female dock officer and then her solicitor, proceedings were allowed to continue.
Yet, Letby’s tears continued to flow. The prosecution’s case was that she and Deakin were lovers.
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Letby later said she’d tried to leave the dock because she felt “unwell”.
Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC replied: “No, it’s because you didn’t like hearing your boyfriend giving evidence, did you?”
The nurse replied: “That’s not fair”.
Letby denied they were having an affair, telling the court: “I loved him as a friend. I was not in love with him.
“[Doctor A] was a married man, it’s not a relationship at all, it’s a friendship.”
Yet prosecutor Mr Johnson painted a picture for the jury of a woman so chronically obsessed with the registrar that she engineered crisis situations so that she could be close to him.
He was one of the doctors who would be called when babies suddenly deteriorated.
The prosecution case was that she harmed the tots to get his “personal attention”. Letby has consistently denied this.
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For his part, Deakin insisted he was the subject of unrequited affection from the nurse and that she’d targeted his wife on social media.
However, during her 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court, the jury heard a raft of evidence that highlighted the close nature of the pair’s relationship.
They shared a strong bond while working together at Countess of Chester Hospital, and exchanged 1,355 Facebook messages at work and at home, while her nursing colleagues teased her about flirting with Doctor A.
Letby messaged the workmate: “I don’t flirt with him! Certainly, don’t fancy him ha ha just a nice guy.”
However, the court was told Letby and Deakin had gone on a day trip to London together and for coffee at a Starbucks branch at Cheshire Oaks designer outlet.
The pair exchanged messages with love heart emojis and Letby called the registrar a “sweetie” for bringing her chocolate.
On one occasion Letby texted a friend saying she’d received a “strange” message from Deakin.
The friend replied: “Did u? Saying what?” then suggested the doctor had suggested Letby “go commando” along with a crying laughing emoji.
The charges Letby has been convicted of in full
Child A, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby injected air intravenously into the bloodstream of the baby boy. COUNT 1 GUILTY.
Child B, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby attempted to murder the baby girl, the twin sister of Child A, by injecting air into her bloodstream. COUNT 2 GUILTY.
Child C, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said Letby forced air down a feeding tube and into the stomach of the baby boy. COUNT 3 GUILTY.
Child D, allegation of murder. The Crown said air was injected intravenously into the baby girl. COUNT 4 GUILTY.
Child E, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby murdered the twin baby boy with an injection of air into the bloodstream and also deliberately caused bleeding to the infant. COUNT 5 GUILTY.
Child F, allegation of attempted murder. Letby was said by prosecutors to have poisoned the twin brother of Child E with insulin. COUNT 6 GUILTY.
Child I, allegation of murder. The prosecution said Letby killed the baby girl at the fourth attempt and had given her air and overfed her with milk. COUNT 12 GUILTY.
Child K, allegation of attempted murder. The prosecution said Letby compromised the baby girl as she deliberately dislodged a breathing tube. COUNT 14 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT AT ORIGINAL TRIAL, NOW GUILTY AFTER RETRIAL
Child L, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said the nurse poisoned the twin baby boy with insulin. COUNT 15 GUILTY.
Child M, allegation of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby injected air into the bloodstream of Child L’s twin brother. COUNT 16 GUILTY.
Child N, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby inflicted trauma in the baby boy’s throat and also injected him with air in the bloodstream. COUNT 17 GUILTY, COUNT 18 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT, COUNT 19 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child O, allegation of murder. Prosecutors say Letby attacked the triplet boy by injecting him with air, overfeeding him with milk and inflicting trauma to his liver with “severe force”. COUNT 20 GUILTY.
Child P, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said the nurse targeted the triplet brother of Child O by overfeeding him with milk, injecting air and dislodging his breathing tube. COUNT 21 GUILTY.
Child Q, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby injected the baby boy with liquid, and possibly air, down his feeding tube. COUNT 22 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT
Letby insisted she did not know what the phrase “go commando” meant when asked three times in court.
The jury was told that after allegedly attacking one baby, Letby messaged Deakin about the baby’s issues, writing it “made me think I was not good enough”.
He replied: “You are one of a few nurses I would trust with my own children.”
Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said she was “infatuated” with Deakin and that she attacked the children towards the end of her spree to make herself the centre of his attention and focus – an extraordinary explanation denied by the nurse.
There is a growing suspicion amongst many experts that Letby was actually the victim of a miscarriage of justice – with her legal team having submitted an application to the Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC).
This could see her case referred to the Court of Appeal and her convictions ultimately quashed.
Last year, a panel of 14 neonatologists claimed there is no hard medical evidence of the nurse’s crimes.
They concluded the criminal convictions were “unsafe”, claiming there was no “smoking gun” and that Letby was convicted based on circumstantial evidence.
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Professor Richard Gill is a statistician who successfully fought for the exonerations of Lucia de Berk and Daniela Poggiali – nurses also convicted of killing patients.
He told The Sun the narrative that Letby was motivated by her infatuation for Deakin was used so fiercely because prosecutors had “no evidence” otherwise.
“There was no genuine evidence against Lucy at all,” he said.
Referring to her committing the crimes to gain the doctor’s attention, he said: “It was a totally ludicrous suggestion, it doesn’t stand up in any investigation – but they had a problem that she had no motivation, so they had to invent a motivation.”
He continued: “The idea that someone would carry out murderous attacks to gain the attention of a doctor who might or might not be called in to help out, just doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny whatsoever and the amazing thing is the judge let it all pass.”
Dr Gill said reading out flirty text exchanges, as well as references to “going commando” between Letby and another friend, as well as getting the nurse to respond in the dock was a “humiliation” tactic to embarrass her by the prosecution.
After Letby’s conviction, a statutory public inquiry into the events around the deaths the nurse was convicted of was launched in October 2023.
The Thirlwall inquiry – the conclusions of which are due to be released on September 15 – heard the doctor had secured the nurse a placement at another hospital in January 2017, six months after she’d been removed from frontline nursing due to concerns she was harming babies.
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The hospital – which was not named – confirmed to the inquiry that Letby had attended on multiple dates between January and April 2017 alongside the doctor, now referred to as Doctor U.
His request on behalf of Letby was described as “informal” by the hospital, and that senior managers were unaware, meaning no inquiries into her background were done.
Speaking at a hearing in 2024, Deakin said he had supported Letby because she had been struggling with “her mental health”.
He went on to say he now believed he had been “misled and maybe manipulated”.
Giving evidence, Deakin said he “wasn’t aware of the full clinical picture” when he began messaging her in June 2016, a year after she was later convicted of murdering her first victim.
At this point there was strong suspicion surrounding Letby, and not long after she was removed from the ward.
Counsel to the inquiry, Rachel Langdale KC, said the doctor had exchanged 1.355 Facebook messages with Letby from June 2016, spanning from “quite frivolous casual conversation” to “entirely inappropriate” discussions about newborn patients.
Deakin said: “Letby was struggling with her mental health and I think I picked up on that and I offered some support and that support, it grew, and I understand that she slept very poorly because of worry and anxiety.
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“There were often messages that were passed throughout the day and sometimes late at night [and] earlier in the morning.”
In one message after Letby was removed from the neonatal unit in July 2016, he told her: “You’re still the best [neonatal unit] nurse I’ve ever worked with.’”
In another he wrote: “If anyone says anything to you about not being good enough or performing adequately I want you to promise me that you give me details to provide a statement.”
The inquiry was also told the doctor provided Letby with confidential information about the internal investigation at the hospital into the unusual deaths.
He said it was to “reassure her”, but accepted it was a “massive mistake” while also admitting his messages to her were inappropriate.
“I’ve reflected on this daily since – and certainly since my first police interviews in January 2018 – and I think I’ve become more aware that I wasn’t aware of the full clinical picture and I provided support by being misled and maybe manipulated,” he said.
“And for that I am really sorry that things have come to end as they have. I have a lot of regrets about how that period of time took place.”
And what of Letby – who many believe innocent of the crimes of which she was convicted?
Encouraged to write down her thoughts by her GP and hospital occupational health staff after being removed from clinical duties, she provided a window into her feelings for Deakin.
Found at her home after her arrest, the scrawls read: “My best friend. Love. I loved you and I think you knew that.
“I trusted you with everything. I wanted you to stand by me but you didn’t.”