A NURSE accused of killing seven babies moaned about a lack of sleep after murdering one, a court heard.
Lucy Letby, 32, also said taking the body of a newborn baby to a mortuary as his dad cried on the floor was “the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do”.
She messaged a colleague about the death of her first alleged victim at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit in June 2015.
Letby allegedly murdered seven babies and attempted to kill ten others while working on the neo-natal ward at the hospital.
The “poisoner at work” is accused of injecting two babies with insulin during a year-long killing spree.
Letby also allegedly murdered or harmed others by injecting air or milk into their bloodstream or via a tube in their stomachs.
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She is said to have murdered Child A on the evening of June 8 by injecting air into his bloodstream and then allegedly attempted to murder his twin sister, Child B, by the same method on the following night shift.
Jurors at Manchester crown court were today shown a series of messages the defendant exchanged with other staff members, along with activity on her social media accounts.
Less than two hours after she finished the shift during which Child A died she made a Facebook search for Child A’s mother, the court heard.
Later on June 9, before her next shift started, she replied to a fellow nurse who asked: “Hi Lucy. Hope you are OK?”
Letby responded: “I think we all did everything we possibly could under very difficult and sad circumstances. Haven’t had much sleep. Don’t really want to see parents but it’s got to be done.
“I said to (another nurse) that I can’t look after (Child B) because I just don’t know how I’m going to feel seeing parents.
“Dad was on the floor crying saying ‘please don’t take our baby away’ when we took him to the mortuary. It’s just heart-breaking.
“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Hopefully have a more positive one tonight.”
Hours later Child B collapsed while Letby was on duty, before the youngster later stabilised and was eventually discharged the following month, the court was told.
A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of surviving and dead children allegedly attacked by Letby, and also prohibits identifying parents or witnesses connected with the children.
Letby, originally from Hereford, denies all the offences which are said to have been committed between June 2015 and June 2016.
Yesterday it was told how a mum begged “please don’t let him die” after her newborn son was allegedly murdered.
The mum also heartbreakingly told jurors how she never got to hold her baby alive after Lucy Letby, 32, is said to have injected him with air.
And a TV doctor allegedly caught the nurse trying to murder a baby girl after be became suspicious of her, it was previously said.
Dr Ravi Jayaram, a paediatric consultant who has appeared on This Morning and the One Show, had helped deliver the baby on February 17, 2016, weighing just 692g.
While arrangements were being made for Child K to be transferred to a specialist hospital, the medic was aware Letby was alone with her, it is alleged.
Nick Johnson KC, prosecuting, said: “Feeling uncomfortable with this because he had started to notice the coincidence between the unexplained deaths, serious collapses and the presence of Lucy Letby, Dr Jayaram decided to check on where Lucy Letby was and how child K was.
“As he walked into room one, he saw Letby standing over child K’s incubator. She did not have her hands inside the incubator, but Dr Jayaram could see from the monitor on the wall that child K’s oxygen saturation level was falling dangerously low, to somewhere in the 80s.
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“But the alarm was not sounding as it should have been and Lucy Letby had not called for help, despite child K’s oxygen levels falling.
“We allege she was trying to kill child K when Dr Jayaram walked in.”
