A DAD who was told his baby’s life was saved twice by Lucy Letby is calling for a wider investigation into the conditions at her hospital.
Carl Bolton says the Thirlwall Inquiry – the conclusions for which are due on September 15 – has not gone far enough to expose failings at Countess of Chester.
8
8
Letby, now 36, is serving 15-whole life orders for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of seven more between June 2015 and June 2016.
Carl’s daughter Jessica was born via C-section at 36 weeks and was cared for by Letby in the neonatal unit, and claims he was told by the hospital trust she went “above and beyond her call of duty” during medical emergencies to save the struggling tot.
Thirlwall, the independent “final report” in the Letby case, has examined the events specifically surrounding the crimes the ex-nurse was convicted of.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain today, Carl said it being focused solely on the Letby indictments “is far too narrow”, adding: “Anyone else who’s had problems in that unit over a number of years is not going to get the answers they deserve.”
READ MORE NEWS
‘ABOVE & BEYOND’
‘Killer’ nurse Lucy Letby saved my baby’s life twice, says dad
8
8
Carl continued: “You can’t grade grief… as long as the focus is on Lucy Letby those people are never going to get those answers, and I think that’s unfair.”
Carl is working with MP Sir David Davis and multiple other families of babies unhappy with treatment at Chester for a wider inquiry into the hospital.
Since Letby’s convictions in 2023 and 2024, there has been a growing suspicion among many experts that she was a scapegoat amid a spike in baby deaths caused by a struggling hospital ward.
The dad was joined on the ITV morning show by Michele Worden, a former senior neonatal nurse on the same unit as Letby turned whistleblower, who said problems at the hospital were going on for years before the convicted killer even arrived.
Most read in The Sun
‘MURDER’ PROBE
Four arrested for ‘murder’ of three-month-old baby girl near UK fishing lake
STREETS OF BLOOD
Blood feud & bent cops… how van man murder turned Essex gang rift into WAR
POLL OF THE DAY
Should the UK be doing more to stop new migrant crossing routes? VOTE NOW
She said Letby’s trial failed to address the wider picture, including a Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), which in 2016 had found systematic issues, including a severe shortage of nursing staff.
She said: “Everything was becoming sparser and sparser, that comes together to create a perfect storm, and you end up with the situation of mothers and babies being harmed.”
Michele added that “there is no doubt in my mind” that Letby was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
She said: “This inquiry is not broad enough to actually look at what happened to those babies, even on the indictment, and we have more families coming forward…
8
8
“It’s a shame on the United Kingdom. Mothers and babies should not be being harmed in all these hospitals, and it’s terrible the way the trial was conducted because they didn’t look at getting to the truth.”
Carl previously said Letby was the stand out staff member in what appeared a “chaotic” environment when Jessica was treated there in 2016.
He said during the five days they were at the hospital, they never spoke to a doctor, and described the unit as an environment where “it wouldn’t take much more for it to blow up like a bottle of pop”.
Asked if he believes Letby saved his baby’s life, Carl explained that is what he had been told by the hospital and the police.
8
8
He said on two separate occasions Jessica needed to be intubated and was given surfactant into her lungs, a medical procedure normally only for premature babies.
And there were two other examples of “pale moments”, which in hindsight could probably be attributed to acid reflux.
He claims he and Claire were not kept informed about exactly what was happening and how serious Jessica’s condition was.
Three years later, when they finally sat down for a meeting with the hospital trust, he said the extent of Letby’s involvement was given in more detail. Carl said: “The words that the gentleman used were ‘she escalated her care and on the second occasion she went above and beyond her call of duty’.
“Those were the words he used, what he meant by that I don’t know – I don’t know what exactly she did do.”
RECOMMENDED STORIES
Carl went on to say, Letby’s actions to save his daughter does not mean she is innocent of harming other infants.
However, he said: “We feel that the process was unfair. “We feel the jury wasn’t given the full information about that unit.”
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