Detectives investigating child killer Lucy Letby have passed a file of evidence to prosecutors alleging she murdered and harmed more babies.
The Mail understands there are more than a dozen potential offences included in the file, which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) last night confirmed would be examined to see whether she should be charged with more crimes.
That process is expected to take several weeks and involve consultation with the most senior legal brains in the country, including Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, and Lord Richard Hermer KC, the Attorney General.
The news emerged hours after Cheshire Police confirmed it had arrested three senior executives who worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital, where Letby carried out her 13-month killing spree, on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.
The unnamed managers were quizzed at separate police stations in Cheshire for several hours before being bailed pending further enquiries on Monday.
Their arrests form part of Cheshire Constabulary’s parallel investigation into corporate manslaughter at the NHS Trust, but it is understood that prosecutors have not yet been asked to offer advice in connection with that second inquiry.
Letby, 35, is currently serving 15 whole life terms for the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of seven more – one of whom she attacked twice – at the hospital’s neo-natal unit, between June 2015 and June 2016.
In December, Cheshire police confirmed that the serial killer had been questioned in prison in connection with more murders and attempted murders at both the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where she underwent two periods of training.
Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more following two trials at Manchester Crown Court
Police are examining 4,000 babies Letby cared for between January 2012 and July 2016
The Women and Children’s building, which houses the neo-natal unit, where Letby committed her crimes
Stephen Parkinson, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), is expected to evaluate the file of evidence presented by detectives
Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer is also likely to be consulted about any potential new charges
Dr Stephen Brearey, the senior consultant on the hospital’s neo-natal unit, told the public inquiry he now had suspicions about other babies Letby could have harmed
Dr Dewi Evans was the lead expert witness at Letby’s trial at Manchester Crown Court
As part of their ongoing inquiry, codenamed Operation Hummingbird, detectives have been examining the cases of 4,000 infants she cared for during the ‘footprint’ of her nursing career, which dates back to January 2012, and includes two student placements she undertook at the Liverpool Trust, in 2012 and 2015.
However, the handing over of evidence to the CPS is a significant milestone in their investigation.
A spokesman for the CPS said: ‘We can confirm that we have received a full file of evidence from Cheshire Constabulary asking us to consider further allegations in relation to deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
‘We will now carefully consider the evidence to determine whether any further criminal charges should be brought.
‘As always, we will make that decision independently, based on the evidence and in line with our legal test.’
According to an independent report, leaked to the Mail’s Trial+ podcast, Letby was on duty, or had been working the shift prior, for 12 of 13 baby deaths that occurred at the Countess between April 2015 and July 2016.
In November, Dr Stephen Brearey, the senior paediatrician on the hospital’s neo-natal unit, told the public inquiry investigating Letby’s crimes that he believed she ‘likely’ murdered or attacked more babies before she killed her first victim, a premature twin boy known as Baby A, in June 2015.
He said, looking back, he now had suspicions about other deaths and collapses, which at the time staff believed were due to natural causes.
Dr Rachel Lambie, who worked as a registrar at the Countess, also told the Thirlwall Inquiry that around a fortnight before Baby A died another ‘very, very unusual event’ occurred on the ward. Although she didn’t go into detail, the medic confirmed she has since given a statement to detectives about the incident.
During the hearings, at Liverpool Town Hall, it also emerged that babies’ breathing tubes became dislodged on 40 per cent of shifts Letby worked at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, between October and December 2012, and January and February 2015.
According to the BBC, babies suffered potentially life-threatening incidents on almost a third of the 33 shifts she was on duty while training at the Trust.
In one case, from November 2012, a baby boy she was caring for collapsed and water was later discovered in his breathing tube, which experts say is highly irregular.
Dr Dewi Evans, the former lead prosecution witness at Letby’s original trial, also previously told the Mail he had concerns over the deaths of at least three children and the collapses of as many as 15 more, including one potentially poisoned with insulin, all of which were not included on the original indictment.
He said he had suspicions that Letby experimented with moving babies’ breathing tubes as a method of causing harm before she began injecting air into their bloodstreams, or into their tummies via their nasal feeding tubes in a bid to kill.
‘One thing we can be reasonably sure of is that Lucy Letby did not turn up to work one day and decide to inject a baby with air into their bloodstream,’ Dr Evans said. ‘I think the modus operandi evolved over time and I think that prior to air embolus tube displacement was probably something that she did.’
Letby is serving 15 whole life sentences and has twice applied but failed to appeal her convictions. Her case is now being looked at by the Criminal Cases Review Commission
Lady Justice Thirlwall will report her findings from the public inquiry, which was held at Liverpool Town Hall, early next year
Neonatologist Professor Neena Modi, Letby’s barrister Mark McDonald, Sir David Davis MP and retired medic Dr Shoo Lee, during a press conference to announce ‘new medical evidence’ which they say casts doubts on her convictions
The BBC’s Panorama programme also claimed to have seen evidence that a baby boy, whose case was not included in the original trial, was potentially poisoned with insulin in November 2015.
Letby was convicted of attempting to murder two children on the unit by administering the drug into their drips, in August 2015 and April 2016.
Letby, formerly of Hereford, has always maintained her innocence but two applications for leave to appeal her convictions have already been refused by the Court of Appeal.
In February her new legal team presented reports from a panel of 14 international experts which, they say, casts doubt on the jury’s guilty verdicts.
Led by Canadian neonatologist, Dr Shoo Lee, the panel said no murders took place at the Countess and instead babies collapsed or died because of natural causes or poor care.
In April, their findings, plus that of another 12 experts, were submitted to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice. It subsequently confirmed it is examining whether her case should be sent to the Court of Appeal for a third time.
A spokesman for Cheshire Police said: ‘We can confirm that Cheshire Constabulary has submitted a full file of evidence to the CPS for charging advice regarding the ongoing investigation into deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neo-natal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital as part of Operation Hummingbird.’
