Lucy Letby: Doctor asked for nurse to be taken off shift - court

Dr Stephen Brearey says he escalated concerns to senior management about nurse Lucy Letby

A doctor asked for nurse Lucy Letby to be taken off shift after raising repeated concerns about her presence and the deaths of babies - but was told "no", a court has heard.

The nurse denies murdering seven babies and the attempted murder of 10 others at Countess of Chester Hospital.

Dr Stephen Brearey told Manchester Crown Court he "didn't want nurse Letby to come back to work" until concerns had been "investigated properly".

But management refused, the jury heard.

Dr Brearey, who was head of the hospital's neonatal unit, asked for Ms Letby to be stood down after the deaths of two baby boys, who were part of a set of triplets, in June 2016.

The court has previously heard that the first boy, referred to as Child O, was in good condition and stable up until the afternoon of 23 June when he suffered a "remarkable deterioration" and died.

His brother, Child P, died just over 24 hours later after also being attacked by Ms Letby, it is alleged.

The prosecution claims Ms Letby murdered the boys by injecting air into their bloodstreams.

Dr Brearey told the court that the death of the brothers was "distressing for those involved and deeply so with me".

He said: "All three triplets were born in such good condition, they were following a healthy path to growing and developing and hopefully going home."

Dr Brearey told jurors that Child O's collapse had come "out of the blue" and observed that in the hours before his death there had been an "unusual" rash on his chest. He said this was something he had not "seen before or since".

Lucy Letby is accused of carrying out the attacks at Countess of Chester Hospital

Following Child P's death on 24 June, there was a debrief for the medical team on the neonatal unit.

"Ms Letby was present in that debrief. I asked her how she was feeling and I can remember suggesting to her she needed the weekend off to recover," the doctor said.

"She didn't seem overly upset to me in the debrief and told me at the time she was on shift next day, which was a Saturday."

The doctor said he had been "concerned" about Ms Letby going back on shift because he had "already expressed concerns to senior management over the association between nurse Letby and the deaths we'd seen on the unit".

Dr Brearey said he had called Karen Rees, the duty executive senior nurse, to report his concerns, explaining that he "didn't want nurse Letby to come back to work the following day or until all this was investigated properly".

'Further conversations'

Dr Brearey said Ms Rees had "said no", telling him "there was no evidence" for his claims.

He told the court he had asked Ms Rees if she was "happy to take responsibility for the decision, in view of the fact myself and consultant colleagues wouldn't be happy with nurse Letby going to work the following day".

Ms Rees responded "yes", the medic said.

Dr Brearey told the court that "further conversations" had taken place the following week and the decision had been taken to remove Ms Letby from frontline nursing duties - placing her in a clerical role instead.

Ben Myers KC, defending, noted that Dr Brearey had first "identified" Ms Letby as someone of interest as early as June 2015 after the death of the first three babies in the case.

Dr Brearey had noted, with colleagues, that Ms Letby was present when those three children died in 2015.

Mr Myers put it to the doctor that he was guilty of "confirmation bias" towards Ms Letby and had failed to look at "suboptimal care" given to the children in this case.

"Absolutely not," the doctor replied.

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Mr Myers put it to Dr Brearey that if there had been a basis for his suspicions he would have gone to the police.

Dr Brearey said he and his colleagues had been trying to "escalate appropriately" and had needed "executive support" to decide the "correct plan of action going forward".

The doctor added: "It's not something anyone wanted to consider, that a member of staff is harming babies.

"The senior nursing staff on the unit didn't believe this could be true."

He said with every "unusual" episode of baby collapse between June 2015 and June 2016 there had been "increasing suspicion" about Ms Letby, which led him to eventually escalate his concerns and request she be taken off shift.

Ms Letby, 33, originally from Hereford, denies a total of 22 charges.

The trial continues.