EXCLUSIVE: Serial killer nurse Lucy Letby’s sick grin as hospital poster girl as she comforts a newborn years before her murder spree began

A chilling photograph has emerged of killer nurse Lucy Letby comforting a newborn baby as she poses as a poster for the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Smiling broadly in her blue nurse’s uniform, the convicted murderer bends over the baby in a hospital bed, her hand resting on her stomach.

Letby’s image featured on a full page of the Trust in Cheshire’s 2012-2013 annual report.

Ironically, the report boasts that the Trust is one of the few in the country to have achieved the highest levels of ‘safe care’.

It’s not the only time the slayer has been used as a face for the NHS: in 2013, she appeared on material promoting the hospital’s BabyGrow appeal to raise funds for a new unit neonatal.

Letby’s image featured on a full page of the Trust in Cheshire’s 2012-2013 annual report. Pictured: The Countess of Chester Hospital where Letby murdered six babies

Lucy Letby, 33 (pictured in police custody) was sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison last month for killing seven babies and attempting to murder six others between 2015 and 2016

In an article promoting the department, she said, “My role is to care for a wide range of babies who require different levels of support.

“Some are here for a few days, others for several months and I love seeing them progress and supporting their families.”

Letby, 33, was sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison last month for killing seven babies and attempting to murder six others between 2015 and 2016.

Cheshire Police are now investigating whether Letby was already harming infants at the time the chilling image was taken.

It comes as a mother who discovered a photo of the killer with her sick baby at his christening has asked for his death to be reconsidered.

Month-old Alvin of Emily Morris was being cared for in the unit where Letby worked at the Countess of Chester in 2013.

She said Letby told her that Alvin’s condition was deteriorating the night before he died and it was almost like “she was implying she had done something.”

Ms Morris, 35, from Deeside, Flintshire, said the photo left her ‘sickened’ and called for her baby’s death to be reinvestigated after police concluded in 2018 that there were no suspicious circumstances.

Ms Morris and Alvin’s stepfather Mark Lewis saw the photo for the first time this week after it was found stored on a disk in a memory box which they had previously been unable to download.

Cheshire Police are now investigating whether Letby was already harming infants at the time the chilling image was taken. Lucy Letby is pictured while working in the hospital

It comes as a mother who discovered a photo of the killer with her sick baby at his christening has asked for his death to be reconsidered. The photo – taken at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2013 – shows Emily Morris lifting her baby, Alvin, out of a bed as Letby bends down to help.

The couple expressed their horror at discovering the image of the killer fussing around the baby.

“It shocked us. It’s really hard to see a person who did this to these babies next to you. It makes you sick,” Ms Morris said.

“You can see her grabbing her blanket. I told everyone she did it and now I have proof. It’s proof that she was with him.

Ms Morris added that Letby had written a message in her child’s christening book which read: “To Alvin, with love on your special day.”

She told the Daily Mail: “It’s weird. It gives you a feeling of unease looking at it.

Ms Morris first noticed Letby’s odd behavior with Alvin, who had been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, at the christening which took place at the hospital.

She said the nurse constantly tried to touch and lean over him during the intimate ceremony.

“Lucy Letby told us that Alvin was deteriorating the night before he died. By morning he was dead, which is weird. It’s like she was implying that she had done something,” she remembers.

“She got it the night before… We say it’s suspicious.” It’s strange. She had to do something.

It’s not the only time the slayer has been used as a face for the NHS: in 2013, she appeared on material promoting the hospital’s BabyGrow appeal to raise funds for a new unit neonatal. Lucy Letby is pictured holding a baby at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2012.

Superintendent Paul Hughes of Cheshire Police said the force was “engaged in a full and thorough investigation of the entire period during which Lucy Letby was employed as a nurse”.

“This investigation is continuing, through a transparent and open-minded process,” he said.

“The families of all the babies taking part in this survey have been informed and supported. We will of course provide a more detailed update when we can.

The UK Department of Health and Social Care has ordered an independent inquiry into the circumstances of these deaths and how Letby was able to carry out his killings.