Police are persevering with to research two child deaths linked to the hospital the place youngster serial killer Lucy Letby labored, the general public inquiry inspecting her crimes has heard.
A doc ready by the Thirlwall Inquiry’s authorized workforce stated there had been 13 deaths on the Countess of Chester’s neonatal unit between 2015 and 2016, whereas 4 had died after that they had been transferred to neonatal models at different hospitals.
Whereas all 17 deaths have been examined by Cheshire Constabulary, the general public inquiry heard that two of them – both on the Countess of Chester or elsewhere post-transfer – “stay the topic of ongoing police investigation”.
Cheshire Constabulary declined to remark.
Final month, it emerged Letby, now 35, had been questioned under caution in jail by detectives probing deaths and non-fatal collapses at each the Countess of Chester and in addition at Liverpool Ladies’s Hospital, the place the neonatal nurse educated as a scholar.
Police have been reviewing the hospital care of 4,000 infants admitted from when Letby began her employment in January 2012 till the tip of June 2016.
The evaluate contains two work placements Letby undertook in Liverpool in 2012 and 2015.
Police beforehand emphasised that solely instances highlighted as medically regarding could be investigated additional.
Letby was in the end convicted of murdering seven infants and making an attempt to homicide seven others between June 2015 and June 2016.
Whereas one among her tried homicide victims, Youngster Ok, died days after Letby intentionally dislodged her respiratory tube, prosecutors stated she had not in the end brought about her dying.
The opposite 9 infants who died in 2015 and 2016 – and didn’t characteristic in Letby’s felony trials – are included within the overview doc produced by the Thirlwall Inquiry’s authorized workforce.
Amongst particulars listed within the doc are both the reason for dying that was recorded autopsy, or the registered reason for dying.
A number of of them cited congenital circumstances.
Following Letby’s convictions, police stated a few of the 17 deaths – 10 in 2015 and 7 within the first half of 2016 – have been now not beneath investigation as a result of a pure or organic trigger had been recognized.
The inquiry heard that three infants died on the Countess of Chester’s neonatal unit in 2012.
Two died throughout the next 12 months whereas in 2014 there have been three deaths.
Letby, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life sentences after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court docket of seven counts of homicide and eight counts of tried homicide. She made two makes an attempt to kill one of many infants.
The general public inquiry, chaired by Girl Justice Thirlwall, is listening to its last week of proof at Liverpool City Corridor.
Her findings are anticipated to be revealed within the autumn.
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, 2025-01-14 19:10:00
