Doctor’s claims about nurse ‘not worthy of belief’, Lucy Letby murder trial told

A senior doctor’s claim he saw Lucy Letby “doing nothing” as a baby girl’s oxygen levels dipped were “not worthy of belief”, the nurse’s murder trial heard.Letby, 33, allegedly attempted to murder the infant by dislodging her breathing tube while she was being treated at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit in February 2016.

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The prosecution say she was interrupted by consultant Dr Ravi Jayaram who said he walked in to find Letby standing by Child K’s incubator and with no alarm sounding.Continuing his defence closing speech at Manchester Crown Court on Thursday, Ben Myers KC: “The accusation is that Lucy Letby interfered with the tube and interfered with the alarm knowing it would not go off.“We say the fact that blame has been directed at Ms Letby by Dr Jayaram, the consultant responsible for (Child K) on that unit, is no mere coincidence – directed long after the time of these events.

“She doesn’t accept that is anything she ever did.“She doesn’t accept she has done anything to harm these children.“The allegation relies on the credibility and reliability of Dr Jayaram, as it always has done.“We say the most striking feature of this allegation is he did nothing despite what he claimed to the police nearly a year later.“That is not worthy of belief, it’s incredible.”Manchester Crown Court has heard that by this stage Dr Jayaram and head consultant Dr Stephen Brearey had suspicions about Letby’s presence at a number of collapses.Mr Myers said: “If you strip this back to what’s being alleged he would call the police.“Dr Jayaram said he didn’t have the training. Well, I don’t know what they teach you at consultant