Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Baker draws the inquiry's attention to the full report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which he says wasn’t provided to families.

The decision to redact the report, removing references to Letby, was a "blatant lack of candour", he says.

“The families believe the management of the hospital were dishonest and covered up what happened, possibly to protect reputations," Baker says.

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Baker says the parents of children C, G and H were only told that there had been any issues with their children’s care when they were phoned by police on the morning of Letby’s arrest on 3 July 2018.

That "lack of transparency" extended to the coroner, he adds.

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Baker is now discussing the communication between the children's families and authorities.

He says some of the families were unaware of the number of times their baby had collapsed, adding that “providing accurate information to parents is a bedrock of compassionate healthcare”.

"Those who lost babies weren’t provided with adequate bereavement support."

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Baker says families were informed of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of their children in a "hurried and unexpected way, often not through proper channels but though leaks to the media and newspapers, and some even during the course of Lucy Letby’s criminal trial".

"The families continued to discover new information throughout the trial and they will continue to do so throughout this inquiry," he adds.

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Moving on to the circumstances of some of the children's deaths, Baker says: "Despite what has been said in the media, the babies weren’t all vulnerable.

"Some were ready to go home - they were stable, improving. Nobody could understand why they were suddenly collapsing and dying.

“The families ask: 'Why was there not greater curiosity? Why was it in some cases that families were told not to have post mortems? Was it part of the secrecy?'"

The parents of the children who died in 2016 view their deaths as a "safeguarding failing" because they happened at a time when there were known concerns that harm was being deliberately done, the lawyer adds.

He says that parents also believe that attempts to blow the whistle and escalate concerns were "supressed by management at a cost of further harm to victims”.

"They believe that seven babies were murdered or harmed in the period following October 2015 because proper steps were not taken to explore those concerns and that each successive delay allowed more harm to be caused."

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

The court is now hearing from Richard Baker KC, who is representing the families of children C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, O, P, R - and also Child U who didn’t feature in the criminal trial.

Baker refers back to the case of Beverley Allitt, who was working at Grantham hospital in Lincolnshire when she killed four children and tried to murder another nine in 1991.

The case will remain a "constant presence" throughout the inquiry as it bears a "remarkable similarity" to Letby, he says.

"The Grantham and Kesteven Hospital did considerably better [in the Allitt case] than the Countess of Chester Hospital did years later," Baker says.

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Skelton now addresses the widely-published doubts surrounding Lucy Letby's conviction.

For context: Some statisticians have publicly questioned the credibility of some of the evidence against Letby - such as a staffing rota showing she had been on duty for every suspicious death or collapse between June 2015 and June 2016.

Skelton says that critics of the case against Letby don’t understand that her conviction was not through statistical argument.

He highlights the fact the Court of Appeal refused her permission to appeal her case and that she was convicted because the "factual and expert medical evidence demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that she had harmed the children at the hospital".

Richard Baker KC, who is also representing some of the families, adds that anybody doubting the case "should be ashamed of themselves".

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Skelton now lays out what he describes as the “cultural norms” which undermined suspicion of Letby.

He says among the factors at play were “professional reticence…institutional secrecy...the demonisation of whistleblowers…the growing schisms between the nurses and doctors, and doctors and executives”.

Skelton KC tells Lady Justice Thirlwall that she will be up against “longstanding cultural forces” when seeking to make recommendations for change.

“I would urge that the hospital’s chief executives show a greater degree of reflection - their denials and deflections continue to cause pain," he adds.

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Skelton names ward manager Eirian Powell, director of nursing Alison Kelly, and medical director Ian Harvey as the bosses who failed to learn the lessons of the Allitt and Chua cases.

Skelton says Harvey repeated the mantra that he was not presented with sufficient information by the consultants, which Skelton says is "misconceived".

"It wasn’t for Ian Harvey to judge the validity of the consultants' concerns - he wasn't a neonatologist or a police officer," Skelton says.

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Skelton says "major failures" that were happening in 2015 continued in 2016, "but by then they were magnified by denial, deflection and delay on the part of the hospital executives”.

“There was also an inexplicable failure to provide information to external bodies including the regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC)," he adds.

Human shortcomings and systemic weaknesses were to blame for issues at the hospital, he says.

While consultants acted with "tenacity and courage" in efforts to raise concerns with senior management, he says "it should also be recognised that the consultants were in a position to trigger whistleblowing procedures but did not do so".

Consultants should never have found themselves in that position, he says.

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Continuing his condemnation of the hospital's investigation, Skelton tells the inquiry that internal discussions happened in "un-minuted meetings, informal conversations and emails".

He says it was "more whisper than practical investigation into the deaths".

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Skelton now moves on to discuss individual cases.

He says the blood results of Child F's insulin poisoning were a "major opportunity to identify major criminality".

He notes that the historic cases of Allitt and Chua both used insulin poisoning as a mode of attack.

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Skelton says it is difficult to understand why parallels were not drawn any earlier between what was happening at the Countess of Chester Hospital and the cases of Beverley Allitt and Victorino Chua - two former nurses who were also convicted of murdering patients at hospitals they worked at.

He says that families were "kept in the dark" over the investigation being carried out by the hospital into the deaths.

"The families should have been told by the hospital that they were investigating the deaths," Skelton says.

"Not telling them was morally indefensible...and it meant that the investigations themselves did not capture information that only the families themselves could have given.”

Skelton adds that "open mindedness, engagement with the police, the coroner and the families were notably absent from the hospital’s investigations".

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

Lady Justice Thirlwall has arrived, and the room stands as the inquiry gets underway.

First to speak is Peter Skelton KC, who is representing the parents of children A, B, I, L, M, N and Q ( a reminder, reporting restrictions mean we can't identify the families or the children).

“I’m going to summarise briefly and bluntly what went wrong with the hospital," he says.

“Vital information was overlooked with fatal consequences."

Skelton points the finger at former chief executive Tony Chambers and medical director Ian Harvey who he says "should have overseen investigations".

“Consultants were met with the obdurately closed minds of their managers and senior managers," he adds.

Judith Moritz
Reporting from the inquiry

The oak and mahogany panelled council chamber is silent, waiting for the Inquiry Chair Lady Justice Thirlwall to enter.

This morning, we’re expecting to hear opening statements delivered on behalf of the victims' families.

There’s a large screen at one side of the room, behind which some of those families are sitting. They’ve asked to be screened off, so that they are able to sit in a private area during the proceedings.

We won’t be hearing from the families themselves just yet - their evidence will begin next week.

These are opening statements on their behalf.

Today the inquiry will be hearing from lawyers representing the families of victims.

We'll be beginning shortly with opening statements. Stay with us as we bring you the latest.

This is a distressing story, and upsetting details will be discussed over the course of this inquiry.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised by this case you can visit BBC Action Line for details of where support is available.

This inquiry began as the result of the actions of former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby, 34.

In August 2023, Letby was convicted of killing seven babies in her care and attempting to kill seven others between June 2015 and June 2016.

She has been sentenced to 15 whole life terms and will die in prison.

Letby’s murder trial last year was one of the longest in British legal history, following a six-year police investigation. A jury was unable to reach a verdict on one count of attempted murder, but a subsequent retrial on this count found her guilty.

Two separate applications from Letby to appeal against her convictions have been denied.

You can read more about her case here.

We're re-starting our live coverage of the Thirlwall Inquiry.

Now in its third day, the inquiry was set up to examine what happened, external at the Countess of Chester Hospital following the conviction of former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby of murder and attempted murder of babies there.

Yesterday, the inquiry heard how junior doctors at the hospital were referring to Letby as "nurse death" by September 2016.

As a reminder, the inquiry is investigating three areas:, external

1. The experiences of the hospital and other relevant NHS services, and all the parents of the babies named in the indictment.

2. The conduct of those working at the hospital including the board, managers, doctors, nurses and midwives with regard to the actions of Letby.

3. The effectiveness of NHS management and governance structures and processes, external scrutiny and professional regulation in keeping babies in hospital safe and well looked after.

Stay with us as our correspondents inside the hearing room in Liverpool bring you the latest updates.

The second day of the Thirlwall Inquiry has come to an end. We'll shortly be closing our live coverage.

It's been set up to examine what happened, external at the Countess of Chester Hospital and the conviction of former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby of murder and attempted murder of babies there.

Here is some of what Barrister Nicholas de la Poer KC told the inquiry today:

• Letby "attempted to murder Child K in the early hours of 17 February 2016" - the second day of the Care Quality Commission inspection
• In the period June 2015 to March 2017, no board committee escalated to the board issues relating to neonatal mortality or Letby
• The hospital board met 16 times between June 2015 and May 2017. Concerns in relation to Letby were explicitly discussed at four extraordinary meetings held in private
• Junior doctors at the hospital were referring to Letby as "Nurse Death’" by September 2016
• She was also described as "the angel of death" during a meeting at the hospital in April 2017
• On 5 July 2016, a HR representative at the hospital sought legal advice from an employment lawyer. She told them about the increased neonatal death rate and staff were pointing fingers, adding a consultant made a reference to serial killer Beverley Allitt

You can read more about what was said at the inquiry today here.