Lucy Letby hospital dealt another huge blow over investigation into dead babies

A colleague of Lucy Letby has won a High Court claim against the NHS trust where he works over an investigation into what he knew about the nurse.

Anonymised as Dr MN because he gave evidence at Letby's first criminal trial, the doctor said the trust, which also cannot be identified, breached his contract because of how it proposed to carry out the investigation.

The consultant had worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital on the same neonatal unit as Letby.

After moving to another hospital, he arranged for a number of supervised visits for Letby there in late 2016 and early 2017.

She was convicted in August 2023 of the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six others, at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

Dr MN then told his trust's deputy chief medical officer about his involvement in the trial and how he was involved in supervised visits for Letby at the hospital.

The trust's chief medical officer prepared a draft letter saying he was content that Dr MN "had no knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Letby at the time of the visits", Mr Justice Sheldon wrote in judgment on Thursday.

A few days later, however, the trust received a complaint from a mother of a baby who had been treated by Dr MN.

She alleged that he had shared confidential information about her son with Letby by email and Facebook.

The trust then told Dr MN it wanted to investigate him over what he knew about Letby at the time of her visits to their hospital.

Dr MN said the trust breached its employment contract because it wanted to appoint someone other than its chief medical officer to oversee the investigation.

The doctor issued a claim for breach of contract at the High Court in March, with a hearing taking place in July.

In his decision on Thursday, Mr Justice Sheldon ruled in Dr MN's favour.

He said: "It is a term of Dr MN's contract of employment that the case manager should be the medical director, in this case, the chief medical officer, for the matters that are the subject of the present investigation."

Letby, 35, was given 14 whole life orders in August 2023 after being found guilty at Manchester Crown Court of the seven murders and six attempted murders.

She was given a further whole life order in July 2024 after being convicted of attempting to murder another baby.

Police previously said corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter investigations are continuing.

Letby, who has always maintained her innocence, lost two bids last year to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal.

Her convictions are being reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates potential miscarriages of justice.