Doctor 'ashamed' he failed to protect babies from harm, Letby inquiry told

A senior doctor said he is “ashamed” that he failed to protect babies from harm by serial killer nurse Lucy Letby. Consultant paediatrician Dr John Gibbs apologised to the parents of Letby’s 14 victims shortly after he was sworn in to give evidence at the Thirlwall Inquiry into the deaths at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit.

The now retired medic said: “I deeply regret and I am ashamed that I failed to protect the babies from harm by Letby, but I do understand that the parents concerned would probably prefer explanations rather than apologies.” He said he and his fellow consultants should have contacted the police in early 2016 before Letby went on to attack other infants, including the murders of two triplet boys in June that year.

The inquiry heard that following a third baby death in June 2015, he emailed his consultant colleagues to relay concerns from registrars that the infants involved “showed a strange purpuric looking rash” and that nurses on the unit were also “very worried”. Dr Gibbs said Letby’s name came up as a “common factor” in July 2015 because she was involved in the resuscitation attempts of all three babies and another infant who was successfully revived.

READ MORE: Lucy Letby inquiry: Parents say hospital 'wasn't honest' with them 'at any stage'

But he told counsel to the inquiry Nicholas de la Poer KC that he had no suspicions that deliberate harm was being caused at that time. He said: “It had been felt she had been unlucky to have been involved in a number of incidents. It can happen to any of us and it happened to me during my career, that you have a bad run. But then that stops happening if it’s just an unfortunate coincidence.”

Immediate concerns about possible deliberate