Lucy Letby could be placed on 24-hour suicide watch in prison, fearing she may kill herself before “justice is served”.
It comes amid growing anger over the NHS’s use of a ‘cover-up’ to avoid police action and calls for a more rigorous investigation into the nurse’s attacks.
Lawyers representing the families of some of the babies targeted by the killer today said a non-statutory public inquiry into his killing spree was ‘inadequate’.
Letby, 33, will spend the rest of her life in prison after being found guilty of murdering seven babies and the attempted murder of six others during her shifts at the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.
Letby previously said she considered taking her own life after being blamed for the babies’ deaths.
Ian Carson of the Prison Officers Association told the Mirror: ‘It wouldn’t surprise me if she was under constant surveillance with eyes on her 24/7.
Lucy Letby, 33, (pictured), could be placed on 24-hour suicide watch in jail, fearing she may kill herself before ‘justice is served’
Letby previously said she considered taking her own life after being accused of baby deaths. Pictured: Letby arrested at his home in Chester on July 3, 2018
Letby (right) told his trial at Manchester Crown Court: ‘There were times I didn’t want to live. I thought about killing myself
“It would be very embarrassing if she killed herself before justice was done. Prison officials may instead decide to monitor her every 10 minutes if she is not considered such a risk.
Mr Carson added: ‘They will have more staff monitoring not only to make sure she doesn’t kill herself, but also to make sure she doesn’t escape.’
Letby told his trial at Manchester Crown Court: “There were times I didn’t want to live. I thought about killing myself.
Between June 2015 and June 2016, Letby murdered five boys and two girls.
She targeted a set of triplets and three sets of twins and her victims ranged from a full-term baby girl to extremely premature infants, including a baby girl who survived despite being born in a hospital toilet just 23 weeks gestation.
It is unlikely that the identity of any of the babies will ever be made public. All were given lifetime anonymity orders by the judge before the trial began, barring the media from naming them or their parents.
Parents of infants murdered and mutilated by Letby described their “eight years of torture” after his conviction.
Last night the senior consultant at Letby’s neonatal ward accused hospital bosses of launching a ‘cover-up’ in a bid to hide the killer’s evil actions from police after he, Dr Ravi Jayaram de television and five other doctors were forced to apologize to her.
Stephen Brearey has accused the NHS trust officials behind the Countess of Chester’s Hospital of ‘stemming the narrative’ to prevent police uncovering suspicious deaths in a moving interview with BBC’s Panorama.
The neonatal nurse now replaces Myra Hindley and Ian Brady as the most prolific child killer in modern British history after a jury found her guilty of the murders.
Letby was also found not guilty on two counts of attempted murder, but the jury could not rule on six other counts of attempted murder.
She will be sentenced on Monday. The killer refused to return to the dock on Thursday to hear the latest of the guilty verdicts – with the judge admitting he has no power to release her from the cells.
Calls are now deafening for a new law to force criminals to face their sentences – and the families of their victims – in court.
Letby was found guilty of murdering seven babies and the attempted murder of six others during her shifts at the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.
Between June 2015 and June 2016, Letby murdered five boys and two girls
This follows a string of high-profile cases in which criminals refused to appear in court to find out their fate, depriving victims of the satisfaction of seeing them fired.
In April, the killer of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel refused to attend his sentencing hearing.
Thomas Cashman, 34, was found guilty of murdering Olivia and injuring her mother Cheryl Korbel, 46, while chasing a convicted drug dealer at their Liverpool home in August last year .
Ms Korbel said Cashman’s absence was ‘like a kick in the teeth’ and called for the law to be changed.
Dr Brearey recounted how he began to have suspicions about sudden infant deaths and collapses in late 2015.
“It’s something that nobody really wants to consider that a member of staff could harm the babies in your care,” he said.
“Some of the babies did not respond to resuscitation as we expected. And these babies, you were getting a heartbeat and their breathing was getting better, but it didn’t happen in these cases the way you expected, which was unusual.
“It was pretty surreal because we had these worries as a group, our worries were increasing. There was no communication from senior management of the trust.
Dr Brearey repeatedly pleaded with senior staff to remove Letby from the service after noticing she was working all the time babies were getting sick.
But he claimed managers, instead of listening to their concerns, demanded he and the other consultants apologize to Letby, and threatened them with “consequences” if they did not put the incident behind them.
He added: “The intention of the leadership was to close this matter one way or another.”
“I have no doubt that Lucy Letby hurt those babies.”
A second consultant whose evidence helped convict killer Lucy Letby says he believes several babies’ lives could have been spared if hospital bosses had acted on his suspicions sooner.
Dr. Ravi Jayaram said executives ordered him to “draw a line” under his concerns and was even told to apologize to Letby during a mediation meeting, ITV News reporting.
While completing a three-year nursing degree at the University of Chester, Letby completed an internship at the local hospital where she would later kill or maim her victims.
The killer will be sentenced on Monday after refusing to return to the dock on Thursday to hear the latest of the guilty verdicts
Dr Jayaram said: “I sincerely believe that there are four or five babies who could go to school now and who are not.”
Doctors have been asked to apologize or face possible referral to the General Medical Council.
The consulting group, which included Dr Brearey, wrote: ‘Dear Lucy, we would like to apologize for any inappropriate comments that may have been made during this difficult time.
“We are truly sorry for the stress and upheaval you have experienced over the past year. Rest assured that patient safety has been our top priority during this difficult time.
