Lucy Letby emailed colleagues to say she was 'fully exonerated' by internal investigation

ITV Granada's Mel Barham reports on the day's evidence at the inquiry

Lucy Letby urged her fellow nurses to be “sensitive and supportive” on her planned return to a hospital neonatal unit as she told them she had been “fully exonerated” of any wrongdoing, an inquiry has heard.

The child serial killer had been removed from the Countess of Chester Hospital unit in July 2016 after consultant paediatricians raised concerns with management that she may have been harming babies after a string of unexpected and unexplained deaths and collapses.

Six months later, Chief Executive Tony Chambers told consultants to “draw a line under the Lucy issue” after he said external reviews found no evidence of criminality and that a grievance procedure that Letby took out over her removal had been upheld.

Mr Chambers ordered the consultants to apologise to Letby for alleged derogatory remarks after she complained some doctors had been heard to refer to her publicly as the “angel of death” and the “murderer on the unit”, the Thirlwall Inquiry into events surrounding Letby’s crimes has heard.

Days later on 31 January 2017, Letby sent a group email to neonatal nurses in which she wrote:

“Dear colleagues, I was redeployed from the unit in July 2016 following serious and distressing allegations of a personal and professional nature made by some members of the medical team.

"From then until now I have been unable to visit or contact the unit whilst these matters were investigated.

"After a thorough investigation it was established that all the allegations were unfounded and untrue, and therefore I have been fully exonerated.

"I have received a full apology from the trust.

"As you can imagine this whole episode has been distressing for me and my family.

"I will begin my return to the unit in the coming weeks. I will need colleagues to be sensitive and supportive at this time. Many thanks, Lucy Letby.”

Nurse Kathryn Percival-Calderbank said she and colleagues were “a bit stunned” when they received the email.

She told the inquiry: “We were not informed about anything. We didn’t know what these allegations had been so we were a bit stunned by it all really because we were still under the impression she was on secondment.”

She said Mr Chambers told them to “be nice to Lucy” on her return.

Ms Percival-Calderbank said: “A lot of the staff were taken into a room. It took us by surprise that we had to be nice to Lucy because none of us had ever been horrible to her. That’s not in our nature.”

The inquiry has heard the consultants persisted with their concerns and Letby’s return to the unit from clerical duties was postponed until hospital bosses eventually called in Cheshire Police in May 2017.

Nurse Melanie Taylor told the inquiry that parts of Letby’s personality were a “little strange”.

Giving evidence, she said: “I do remember her coming on to a shift to tell me about a baby that had died. It was almost in a way where she was excited to tell me, almost like in a gossipy manner.”

Counsel to the inquiry Rachel Langdale KC asked: “Did it strike you at the time as unusual?”

Ms Taylor said: “Yes it did. There were parts of her personality that were a little strange to me.

“I didn’t have any suspicions about any of this … that didn’t cross my mind.

“I personally didn’t have any concerns with her nursing care but her way of speaking to other members of staff, I didn’t like. I felt it was not the most professional.”

Ms Taylor said staff had noted Letby appeared to be present at a lot of deaths.

She said: “My personal feeling and from what I heard from other staff was that it was really unfortunate she had been there for so many tragic events.

“I think it’s an unthinkable thing. It’s just such an unbelievable situation that somebody would do that, especially someone you work with. At the time I would have thought there would be signs of that.”

Ashleigh Hudson, another nurse on the ward, said she was "angry" about a text message that Letby had sent her about the death of her first victim in June 2015.

Letby wrote: "Hi Ashleigh. You may have heard by now but wanted to let you know that we lost little (Child A) on Mon. Know you looked after him when he was born so thought you should know xx”.

Ms Hudson told the inquiry: “I can actually vividly remember this because I was devastated.

“I had only been on the unit for a couple of months at this point. This was the fist time a patient that I had looked after had then passed away.

“I was also a bit angry because I didn’t think it was appropriate to get this information by text because what do I do with it, how do I then seek support?”

Letby went on to write: “I took pictures, hand/foot prints etc… they (the parents) had time together & got some nice little mementos when they are ready to take them.”

Asked about the message, Ms Hudson said: “At the time I felt it was too much information. I kind of shut the conversation down and deleted the messages off my phone because it was just very uncomfortable

“Looking at it now, knowing what I know… it’s very upsetting. It just makes me feel sick to be honest.”

Letby, 34, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.

The inquiry, chaired by Lady Justice Thirlwall, is expected to sit at Liverpool Town Hall until early 2025, with findings published by late autumn.

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