In an intriguing twist revealed by a new documentary, Lucy Letby reached out to police via email to inquire about when she would be interviewed, a full three months before her eventual arrest. This communication sheds light on the former nurse’s awareness of the ongoing police inquiries into an unusual increase in infant fatalities at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit, where she was employed. In her own words, Letby sought to “alleviate her anxieties” over the investigation.
Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, who led the investigation for Cheshire Constabulary, disclosed these details in the Netflix documentary. He noted that Letby, now 36, had sent an email directly from her NHS account. In this message, she referenced Operation Hummingbird, the code name for the investigation, which had not been made public at the time.
“She wanted to know when we were going to speak to her,” Hughes explained. “I found it interesting; I thought maybe she has something to tell us.”
Sent in April 2018, the email from the now-convicted child killer addressed the issue of “time frames” and indicated her anticipation of needing to arrange time off work to accommodate a police interview.
“It would also be beneficial for me to be able to share these potential time frames with my manager at work,” she wrote, highlighting that her colleagues in her current department were unaware of her connection to the investigation. “A message within the team will need to be managed to account for my time off,” she added, underscoring her attempt to balance her professional responsibilities with the looming investigation.
‘It would also be beneficial for me to be able to share these potential time frames with my manager at work, as colleagues within my area of redeployment do not know my circumstances, or that I will be part of the investigation and a message within the team will need to be managed to account for my time off,’ she wrote.
Her email ended: ‘I would be very grateful for any information you can offer to help alleviate my anxieties.’
Senior managers had moved Letby from the neo-natal unit into an administration role at the hospital two years earlier, in July 2016, following doctors’ concerns.
A new Netflix documentary tells of how Lucy Letby emailed police asking when she could be interviewed three months before she was arrested
The Investigation of Lucy Letby, airing on Wednesday, looks at emails, the arrest, and the public inquiry surrounding the convicted child murderer
Bodycam footage shows officers waking up a stunned Letby in her childhood bedroom, which is decorated with fairy lights and snow globes, before telling her she is being arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder
But the public inquiry investigating Letby’s crimes heard that bosses kept her nursing colleagues in the dark about the exact reason for her redeployment – that she was suspected of harming and killing babies in her care.
Letby was eventually arrested at her home in Blacon, Chester – just over a mile from the hospital – around three months after writing the email, on July 3, 2018.
She was arrested twice more before being charged, and extensive footage of all three arrests also features in the 90-minute documentary, The Investigation of Lucy Letby, which is out today.
During the second arrest, Letby’s mother Susan, 65, can be heard crying and wailing, ‘Please, no, not again, no’ as officers arrive at dawn at her home, in a quiet cul-de-sac in Hereford, where she and husband John, 80, have lived for more than four decades.
Bodycam footage shows officers waking up a stunned Letby in her childhood bedroom, which is decorated with fairy lights and snow globes, before telling her she is being arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.
Letby asks to say goodbye to one of her cats, then says to her parents: ‘You know I didn’t do it?’
They reply: ‘We know that.’ Letby can then be seen telling her sobbing mother ‘it’s alright’, before adding, ‘Just go in mum, don’t look mum, just go, just go in,’ as she is led in handcuffs to a police car.
On Sunday, Letby’s parents criticised the documentary as a ‘complete invasion of privacy’ and claimed they would not be watching because ‘it would likely kill us if we did’.
Letby asks to say goodbye to one of her cats, then says to her parents: ‘You know I didn’t do it?’
Letby was arrested multiple times before being charged, and extensive footage of all three arrests feature in the 90-minute documentary
The documentary also shows text messages and emails sent by Letby
The film, made by ITN Productions, charts the story of ‘Zoe’, a full-term baby girl, whose name has been changed for legal reasons. She was the third child to be murdered at the Countess of Chester Hospital in a fortnight, in June 2015.
Speaking for the first time, Zoe’s mother explains the ‘panic, disbelief and confusion’ she and her husband felt after their daughter died unexpectedly soon after birth, and how she felt ‘relieved’ but ‘instantly broken’ when Letby was convicted of murdering her with an injection of air, following a ten-month trial, in August 2023.
The mother, whose identity has been digitally disguised to protect her anonymity, also hits out at the ‘disgusting’ attempts by campaigners, including Tory MP David Davis, to try to free Letby.
In February last year, Mr Davis opened a press conference, held by Letby’s new legal team to rubbish the medical science behind her convictions, by introducing Dr Shoo Lee, a Canadian neonatologist, as ‘the star of today’s show’.
The mother said: ‘This is not a show, there is no star, this is nothing to smile about. The audacity from a politician to introduce someone like this, it is disgusting.’
Letby is serving 15 whole-life terms after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more – one of whom she attacked twice – at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. She has twice failed to appeal her convictions.
In April last year her legal team lodged a file of new ‘expert’ evidence with the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body that reviews potential miscarriages of justice, in the hope her case will be referred to the Court of Appeal a third time.
Inquests into the deaths of five of Letby’s victims, known as Baby C, E, I, O and P, are scheduled to be opened on Wednesday.
An inquest was previously held into the death of Baby A, in October 2016, while a hearing was previously opened and adjourned into the death of Baby D, in January 2016.
