An NHS nursing chief has denied ignoring the concerns of doctors who warned about the behaviour of serial child killer, Lucy Letby.
Karen Moore, the former head of urgent care nursing at Countess of Chester hospital has threatened legal action over allegations of the way she handled staff’s doubts about Letby.
Letby, 33, a former neonatal nurse, was yesterday given a whole life order for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six more, meaning she will spend the rest of her days behind bars.
Mrs Moore, who was known to her colleagues as Mrs Rees when she was at the Countess of Chester, was one of Letby’s line managers.
She told Sky News that when staff started to query the behaviour of Letby to her, she didn’t have sufficient information to take the baby killer off the ward.
Mrs Rees, who now runs a holiday rental in North Wales having left the trust in 2018, says he is now ‘taking legal advice’ about the allegations.
Having left the trust, Mrs Rees came in for criticism from hospital employees, including doctors that expressed grave concerns about Letby.
Dr Stephen Brearey told the court during the trial of Letby that he had contacted Mrs Rees with concerns, following the deaths of two infants in 2016.
He told the court: “I phoned Karen Rees, the duty executive in urgent care, who was familiar with the concerns already.
“I explained what had happened and said I didn’t want nurse Letby to come back to work the following day or until this was investigated properly. Karen said no to that, and [that] there was no evidence.”
He continued: “The crux of the conversation was that I then put to her, ‘Was she happy to take responsibility for this decision in view of the fact that myself and consultant colleagues would not be happy with nurse Letby going to work the following day?’
“She responded, ‘Yes, she would be happy’. I said, ‘Would you be happy if something happened to any of the babies the following day?’ She said, ‘Yes’.”
