it has been a tough one but i have loved every minute of it. this game has come along it is still a work in progress. when you think 1966 was the last world cup trophy lifted and the women's game was banned at that point, so we had a lot of barriers to jump over and we are still kind of doing that, we are still fighting to get what we rightly deserve. that fight is just beginning. time for a look at the weather — here's stav danaos. another warm day across the south of the country, 26 celsius in east anglia. tomorrow will be similar. always almost across the south. closer to this area of high pressure bringing heatwave conditions across the near continent. low pressure to the near continent. low pressure to the north of the uk bringing wet and windy conditions to scotland and northern ireland. pretty wet across western scotland at the moment. a few heavy showers running across wales into north—west england and

across into towards the north—east. these will clear away quite quickly over the next few hours and the rain in the north should ease, blustery showers and variable cloud. mist merk building across southern areas but generally dry towards the south and mild, mid—teens for most. —— mist and murk. the cloud breaks away. lots of sunshine across england and wales. more cloud generally thought scotland, northern ireland, north england, and the best of the sunshine reserved for southern england where we will see the best of the temperatures again, 25, 20 six celsius, low teams, the best of the temperatures again, 25,20 six celsius, low teams, high 20s further north and a mixture of blustery showers and sunny spells. -- 26 blustery showers and sunny spells. —— 26 celsius. after wednesday, this area of low pressure gets its act together, pushes south—eastwards, sends a weather front across the country. good set of a few heavy showers or thunderstorms on thursday. by friday and the weekend, cooler air, those north—westerly winds pushing the warmth back

southwards in towards the near continent. all areas will feel cool and fresher into the weekend. across the south—east, wednesday, thursday is the last of the warmth, then all areas will be in a cooler north—westerly wind with sunshine and showers. some of them on the heavy side. and that's bbc news at ten — there's more analysis of the days main stories on newsnight, which isjust getting underway on bbc two. the news continues here on bbc one, as now it's time to join our colleagues across the nations and regions for the news where you are — but from the ten team it's goodnight. a nurse has been convicted of murdering babies. it's just beyond your imagination that somebody�*s on a ward killing babies. it's unbelievable. so what turned lucy letby

into a serial killer? she's a difficult one to work out. because she's emotionless. there was no empathy or...or sympathy with what's going on at all. for the first time, we hear from the parents whose baby was murdered... i think she's a hateful human being. she's taken everything from us, absolutely everything. ..the doctor who tried to raise the alarm... it was quite clear that they didn't think it appropriate to go the police at that stage. ..and the friend who's stood by her. she would only everi want to help people. to say that she could have harmed any baby, um, - it'sjust not in her nature. we reveal how hospital bosses protected lucy letby... the reputation of the organisation

and protecting that reputation was a big factor in how people responded to the concerns raised. ..and how it was the doctors who stopped the murders. it's unprecedented. it's...it's something which you...you would never believe could be possible, the potential that there could be a serial killer in their local hospital.

tonight, the untold story of britain's most unlikely serial killer. we were actually told we would never have um, our own children. and then i found out i was pregnant, and then we found out we were having twins on valentine's day. wow. which was lovely. can you remember when you first saw them? there wasjust like a sheer elation and happiness that i'm like, i've never felt that before or since. you rememberfeeling like a new dad? yeah, yeah. i was very proud. the twins were born ten weeks early. they were being cared for at the neonatal unit of the countess of chester hospital. 0nly five days old, one of the boys suddenly became unwell.

in the corridor, i could immediately hear crying or... it was, it felt more than crying. and i walked into the room, seeing it was my boy and he had blood round his mouth. and, and lucy was there, but faffing about, not really, not doing anything. you know when it feels like somebody wants to look busy but they're not actually doing anything? the crying, um, i've never heard anything like it since. it was screaming and i was like, "what...what�*s the matter with him?" lucy said, "oh, don't worry."

she has this really calm demeanour about her and she's very softly spoken. don't worry, the registrar was coming. she'd already contacted him. he was on his way. she told me to go back to the ward. i was trying to reassure my wife that, listen, these people are experts and, you know, if they say there's not a problem, you've got nothing to worry about. and that was the first phone call, quickly followed up by a second phone call, um, with a midwife, saying, "you need to get here now", and there was a third phone call telling me, "where are you? the priest has been called." and ijust knew. i knew at that point, you know, you don't call a priest unless someone's dying.

we were taken in and we were told to talk to him and hold his hand and then he was christened. the conversation with the consultant, they said, you know, "we're going to stop. it's no good. "you know, we've been working on him and it's not helping. "and we, we want, we want him to die in your arms rather "than being worked on." so we said ok, and they passed him

to us, and he died. doctors put the death down to a bowel condition and the premature birth. it wasn't considered suspicious, so there was no postmortem examination. after your son had died, what was lucy letby doing? she asked about if i would like her to bath him in front of me, so i said, "yeah". so she bathed him. and then she dressed him in a little woollen gown and gave him back to us, and we held him for a little bit longer.

there had previously been two or three deaths a year at the neonatal unit. but something unusual was happening in 2015. the baby's death in august was the fourth that summer. another three babies had already died injune. a review of the care of all three babies was done, and there was nothing in common that we could pin these three deaths on. but the staffing analysis did identify that lucy letby was on shift for those three episodes. and did that worry you?

well, i think i can remember saying, "oh, no, it can't be lucy. "not nice lucy." news presenter: the trial of a nurse who's accused of murdering seven - babies and attempting to kill ten. others at a hospital in chester has heard how a pattern had emerged of babies dying or suffering - collapses when she was on duty. hi, can ijust talk through what we're doing this morning? so the one are interested in... lucy letby has been on trial at manchester crown court since last 0ctober, accused of killing and harming babies. i've been covering the 33—year—old's case from the start. the only thing that might be a bit of a crunch, sort of depends how long the evidence goes on for, is for me to turn around the radio 1300 at the same time as the tv one. this is my office for the day, outside the court. lucy letby will be a few metres away, on the other side of that wall, inside,

being taken from a prison van. the stakes in this case couldn't be more extreme at both ends of the scale. so if she's convicted, lucy letby becomes britain's most prolific child killer. if she is acquitted, then i don't know what's happened here. you know, this has been a very, very long prosecution, involving many years of investigative work, and there's a nurse at the middle of it who will have been found to have done nothing wrong. we're talking about vulnerable babies, in a hospital, no less. it's unprecedented. it's something which you...you would never believe could be possible, the potential that there could be a serial killer in their local hospital. ajudge has ordered the babies and their families

cannot be identified. but the parents have given statements in court. i was never given the impression that our daughter's condition was life—threatening, and it didn't even cross my mind that she was in danger of dying. we were just standing there looking, as our daughter was dying. _ someone was holding a phone to the doctor's ear. _ then a doctor told them to stop. the postmortem results from the time are interesting. one of them identifies the cause of death as damage to the heart. another one talks about "pneumonia with acute lung injury". and one simply says cause of death "unascertained". none of them talk about harm — or murder.

i don't recall the first time that i met lucy letby. she started work in 2012. she didn't strike me as much different to most nurses on the unit. you didn't have any worries about her doing thejob? i don't think anybody did. it's something that nobody really wants to consider, you know, that a member of staff might be harming the babies under your care. lucy — she was respectful. lucy was always very softly spoken and she seemed quite timid, and that was her whole demeanour. first name terms, you're calling her lucy. absolutely. she told me about her life, we told her about our life. she told us, well, she told me that she was single

and she was quite happy being single, and just general chit—chat and things like that. after each of the deaths, lucy letby sent texts to colleagues.

in october 2015, a fifth baby died unexpectedly on the unit. her mother also gave a statement to the court. while we were bathing her, lucy came back in. she was smiling and kept going on about how she was present at the first bath and how our daughter had loved it.

it's an odd feeling in the courtroom. you know, you've got the parents of each baby sitting listening to this very harrowing evidence, and just a few yards away, behind the glass of the dock, lucy letby is sitting, listening. she's generally passive, no real expression. it's really hard to try and read lucy letby, to tell what she's thinking. i'm finding that very hard. that courtroom, as you will know, it's such a highly emotional and charged place to be in and sit in. i feel, this whole situation, i think she's feeding off it. i think she feeds off other people's pain. do you ever look across at her and think it's possible she didn't do it? no. i can't get over the impression of lucy letby that you get looking

at these social media photos — sparky, full of fun, popular. she looks like the life and soul of the party in these pictures. this is... i don't know what britain's most prolific child killer should look like. i'm pretty sure it's not this, though. this here is aylston school where i first met lucy and where we became friends. dawn has known lucy letby since secondary school. she's agreed to talk about her friend for the first time. we'd come down, walk into town, have meals along this strip, and hang out on the cathedral green.

just here? yeah, yeah. hereford is definitely very much home for her. lucy, you know, has such strong ties to her family here. did lucy always know she wanted to do nursing? yeah. it was the only career that i ever remember her saying that she wanted to go and do. she had had a difficult birth herself and she was very grateful for being alive to the nurses that would've helped save her life. um, so i feel like everything that she did was geared towards that ultimate goal of becoming a nurse. outside of our group, she would present as more shy, reserved, serious, you know, level—headed, but inside the safety of our group, she sort

of let her hair down a bit more and is goofy and makes us all laugh. very bubbly, loves a cocktail, you know, just the fun of getting dressed up and going out with your friends. after school, lucy letby studied nursing in chester and went on to work in the city. she bought a house, adopted cats, rescue cats, which were her whole world. and went out salsa dancing. she was doing the job that she loved and the job that she's always wanted to do. given that, can you think of the possibility that she harmed babies? it is the most out of character accusation that you could ever put against lucy. you think of your most kind, gentle,

soft friend, you know, and think that they could... they're being accused of harming babies. she is the kindest person that i've ever known. she would only ever want to help people. to say that she could have harmed any baby, it's just not in her nature. news archive: the former nurse beverley allitt has been found - guilty of murdering four children who were in her care. _ lucy letby isn't the first health care worker accused of being a serial killer. news archive: today dr harold j frederick shipman was convicted of murdering 15 of his patients. you know, at the end of the day, i've worked with so many serial killers in my career, and all of them quite liked having the power to be able to decide who would live and who would die.

because of course, that's the ultimate power for god. does lucy letby fit the profile of what you'd say is a health care serial killer? no, she doesn't. she is very social. she's very socialised, she has friendship groups. she has people in the hospital who, um, befriended her, mentored her. she is somebody that's seen not suspiciously. there's no evidence that she's fascinated by serial killers. i read the prosecution's opening account of the evidence and i thought, is that it? and i say that because i kept thinking there would be more. clearly it's circumstantial, and often murder cases are often solved by circumstantial evidence, but there was no smoking gun in the letby case.

it wasn't just the five unexpected deaths that were creating suspicion. another five babies almost died on the unit in unusual circumstances over the same period. lucy letby was present each time. then, in february 2016, a consultant says he saw her standing and watching when a baby seemed to have stopped breathing. dr ravi jayaram got up from the nursing station and walked in, and saw that lucy letby was there, and lucy letby was not doing anything, and the baby, who was there with lucy letby at the cotside, the baby was desaturating. he asked lucy letby what was going on, and lucy letby then said, "0h, he'sjust started, he'sjust started declining now." the baby survived the incident.

there were seven consultant paediatricians working on the unit. all of them now thought something was badly wrong. this is the first time the lead consultant has spoken publicly about their concerns. some of the babies didn't respond to resuscitation quite how we would have expected them to. most babies, you'd get a heart rate back and they'd start... their breathing would get better. but that didn't happen in these cases like you'd expect, which was unusual. a hospital boss who took over after the baby deaths has also agreed to talk. she's now suing the hospital for constructive dismissal. i had described to me a horrifying realisation on the part of the pediatricians.

one of them said, "every time this is happening to me, "that i'm being called in for these catastrophic events, which were "unexpected and unexplained, lucy letby is there." and then somebody else said, "yes, i found that." and they all realised that the common factor for each of them was letby's presence on the unit. dr brearey emailed the unit manager again in march 2016, saying, "we still need to talk about lucy." he'd also asked for an urgent meeting with hospital bosses. it was three months before that meeting took place. so, you'd asked for an urgent meeting? that's correct, yes. it was quite surreal, because we had these concerns, and as a group,

our concerns were rising. and there was... there's no communication from senior managers in the trust. i wasn't there. i can't really comment on those events other than to say if that had been raised with me, i would have met with them within 24 hours. between march and june 2016, another three babies almost died unexpectedly while lucy letby was working. then, towards the end ofjune, she was helping to care for two—day—old triplets. 0ne boy died around 6pm. less than 2a hours later, his brother was dead too.

to be clear, these babies, the triplet babies, were in very good health. mm—hm. consecutive days. mm. can you remember what went through your mind on those two days? slight disbelief, really, that it could be happening, and a little bit of anger and confusion, and a feeling of, we really need to do something about this. i know how distressed the consultants were by this point. it was a stark illustration of the desperation of staff who were trying to understand why these events were happening on the unit. after the death of the second triplet, a meeting

was held for staff. lucy letby was there. she was sitting next to me. and i spoke to her towards the end of the meeting, and said how tired and upset she must be after two days of this, and hoped that she was going to have a restful weekend, and she turned to me and said, "no, i'm back on shift tomorrow", which struck me as being...incredible, really. the other staff were very traumatised by all of this, crumbling before your eyes, almost, and she was quite happy and confident to come into work on the saturday. that night, dr brearey called a senior hospital manager. he asked her to stop

lucy letby working. the manager refused. i challenged her. i said, "well, are you saying that you're making this "decision against the wishes of seven consultant paediatricians?" and she said, "yes." and i said, "well, if you're making this decision, "are you taking responsibility for anything that might "happen tomorrow to any other of our babies?" and she said, "yes." and, um, the phone call stopped shortly afterwards. the following day, another baby almost died while lucy letby was on duty. she was finally removed from the neonatal unit three weeks later. the suspicious incidents stopped.

news presenter: a doctor has told a court that he felt extremely - uncomfortable at the thought of the nurse lucy letby- being alone with a baby girl. yes, and today, we had evidence not just about lucy letby herself, but also the way in which the countess of chester hospital is said to have dealt with doctors' concerns. at the trial in manchester, one of the seven consultants has criticised the hospital in court. what today's shown in my mind is that there's no good outcome for the hospital here. you know, this consultant ravi jayaram saying he wished he'd just gone straight to the police and hadn't toed the party line. that's really stark. what we heard today really laid out the case beyond just lucy letby, but the wider picture of what was going on at that hospital. i think the hospital senior management will have some serious questions to answer, no matter how everything unfolds

as a result of this trial. either we have, you know, someone who's causing deliberate harm on the neonatal unit, and concerns were raised, and they were not followed up on by... ..by senior management, or we have one, a case where the mortality rate at the neonatal unit was far higher than it should have been, unacceptably high, and not enough was done to mitigate against that. from the summer of 2016, lucy letby was moved to administrative duties. but there was still no formal investigation into why so many babies had died or come close to death. the internal documents we've

obtained reveal one consultant asked for the police to be called in. a hospital manager replied: "action is being taken," and ordered: "all emails cease forthwith." but the police weren't called. we had a number of meetings with senior management. it was quite clear that, they weren't going to budge and, they didn't think it appropriate to go the police at that stage. instead, the hospital asked the royal college of paediatrics and child health to look at what had been going on in the unit. in november, the college called for the hospital to conduct a thorough external, independent review of each unexpected neonatal death. but the deaths weren't investigated fully. was this a cover up? i don't know how you'd define a cover up but to us the...

the evidence in front of us was quite clear — it felt that they were trying to engineer some sort of narrative or way out of this that didn't involve going to the police. and if you want to call that a cover up then, that's a cover up. there were deaths and near deaths, which could not be explained, and were unexpected. and thatjust does not happen on a neonatal unit. but unfortunately, there was a concern about how it would look. so the reputation of the organisation and protecting that reputation was a big factor in how people responded to the concerns raised. hospital managers went out of their way to protect lucy letby. we've discovered they upheld

a grievance she'd brought against the consultants for getting her removed from the unit. tony chambers concluded the meeting, with the statement to us, saying that we were to apologise to lucy letby, and that a line had been drawn, and that we were not to cross that line and, if we were to cross the line, there would be consequences. this document hasn't been made public before, either. it's a written apology the consultants were forced to send to lucy letby. it says: "we would like to apologise for any inappropriate comments. we are very sorry for the stress and upset that you have experienced in the last year." two consultants were even ordered to attend mediation sessions to make the peace with lucy letby.

the doctors didn't back down. two months after the apology, the hospital asked the police to investigate. but only after the consultants pushed them. to their huge credit, they made the collective decision that they would stay and see this through, and i am full of admiration for that courage. so, even afterthe meeting, when they were told that we'll draw a line under this or there'll be consequences, they still persisted in saying, yes, but we still have questions that haven't been answered. and we still feel that the police are the right people to discuss this with. do you think it's the case that if you hadn't persisted, - there would never have been

a police investigation? - i'm sure, yeah, that was the intention of the executives, was to somehow close this case. tony chambers later resigned as chief executive. he told us what he said to the consultants had been taken out of context. and that prompt action was taken after he was first told of serious concerns injune 2016, including reviews of deaths. he said all his "thoughts are with the children at the heart of this case" and their families. he's "truly sorry for what all the families have gone through" and that he would "co—operate fully. . .with any post—trial inquiry". three weeks after being told about the baby deaths, cheshire police launched an investigation in may 2017 — 0peration hummingbird.

it's really hard to believe that anybody would be harming tiny babies, and that was the general feeling at that point, and it wasn't until we got further on in the investigation, where we'd established that a crime had occurred, that really, the size of this investigation and what we were about to embark on really kind of hit home for people. one case convinced the police there was a killer in the hospital. it involved the family with twins, whose son died back in august 2015. 2a hours later, his twin brother also became very unwell. so, one of the nurses had come and knocked on our doorand said,

you know, he's not, he's not well, he's not well at all, his heart rate is really, really high. what's your first thought? it's happening again. thought it was happening again and, i said to my husband, please, not again, we... we can't do this again. this can't be happening. it's almost bang—on 24 hours since, since our other son had died. thisjust can't be happening. and so i went and i sat with him all night. his heart rate was absolutely through the roof and, you know, it didn't come down, and i wasjust like, just come down, you know, and i'm almost trying to will the machine, you know, bring his heart rate down, make it ok.

this time, the medics managed to save her baby. but the parents say he was badly harmed by the trauma. he's got severe learning difficulties, he's got a lot of complex needs. is it your belief that that's connected... yes. ..to what happened? yes. directly as a consequence. and he's living with it. in early 2018, dr brearey was reviewing the baby's notes for the police. he found evidence the infant had been poisoned. a blood test showed the baby had high levels of insulin. it had been missed by a junior doctor. it was the first sight

i had of this result and it made me feel sick, actually, thinking about it. there was a baby case in front of me in which it was quite clear that this baby had been poisoned by insulin. and the nursing record supported the fact that lucy letby was present, on shift at the time. the body produces insulin naturally. when it does, it also produces a substance called c—peptide. most medical experts agree, if there's hardly any c—peptide, then the insulin cannot be natural. if you measure very high levels of insulin with very low levels of c—peptide, then it can only be the case that the insulin was not made by the body, so that would be objective evidence that there has been, that somehow insulin has been administered to this baby. it wasn't produced by the baby. and it can't have -

happened accidentally? no, this would not happen accidentally. the review of patient records suggested a second baby had also been poisoned with insulin. the crucial evidence had been missed for more than two years. it looked like a baby killer had been left on the unit. was this a significant missed opportunity that when those lab results weren't really flagged at the time? yeah. do you think that was a missed opportunity? yes, yes. in an ideal world, you'd hope that the lab would flag it so it would be reviewed by somebody senior. that didn't happen. it's been said there's no smoking gun in the lucy letby trial, - but these insulin cases get close

to it, do they, for you? - they were a smoking gun for these babies for sure, and i don't have any doubt that lucy letby harmed these babies. the insulin cases were a real milestone in the investigation. we were shocked, really to the core, to find that a baby had been injected with insulin. it's another layer of surprise, i suppose, as to the depths that lucy letby went to. the other cases were less straightforward. but evidence from medical experts indicated all the babies had been harmed intentionally. now, in a couple of the cases, the prosecution say this has been

been poisoning with insulin. in a couple of the cases, it's by force—feeding these children milk. in several of these cases, it's through injecting the child with, with air, air bubbles that, you know, it can cause great harm to, you know, even adults, but to vulnerable babies, it's, it's a life—threatening situation for them. evidence suggests there was a killer on the unit. but how do we know it was lucy letby? this prosecution document shows which nurses were on duty when babies collapsed or died. some were only present on one or two shifts. some were there on six or seven. but lucy letby was always there.

she was working on the unit during every single one of the 25 suspicious incidents. hello, lucy is it? yeah. my name's... from cheshire police. is it ok to step- in for a few seconds? yes. yeah? thank you. in 2018, lucy letby was arrested for the first time. if you just take a seat in there for me, lucy. i'll move that seat forward a bit. i'vejust had knee surgery, so... 0h, right, 0k. we woke up at six o'clock . in the morning to our phone, and it was the family liaison - telling us they'd arrested somebody on suspicion of murder — a health care worker — l and he came, and he had a conversation and -

he said, lucy letby. the absolute shock. i'd almost, in my own mind, - been like, "oh it's someone we don't know and it's someone _ in the background who's done this awful thing," and never in a million years did i think it would be - someone that we, we feltj we had a connection with. the shock of that. the shock of that was just unreal — unreal. lucy letby is clearly the person who, who keeps things. she kept obviously medical records, she kept handovers sheets, she kept electronic devices and photographs. so, she kept diaries, very detailed diaries and notes, which surprised me.

because lucy letby would have been aware that we were going to come and speak to her at some point. the police found lucy letby had been searching for information online about the parents of some of the dead babies. in one case, on the anniversary of their baby's death, they also discovered a note inside her diary. it says "i haven't done anything wrong". but it also says "i killed them". look, you see, it says "i... "i killed them. i'm not good enough. i'm evil.

i did this." well, it seems like a confession, but it might be she's saying "it is alleged i killed them. it is alleged i am evil, i did this." do you know, i worked on a number of murder cases whereby you get people writing strange notes all the time. it's evidence of there perhaps being underlying stress, mental health problems. it's not necessarily evidence of guilt. i just think this is the ramblings of somebody who's under extreme psychological pressure. there may be strong circumstantial evidence against her. but neither the police nor the prosecution have offered a motive. and no one has ever seen lucy letby harming a child. lucy was arrested and released on bail, and then she was arrested again and, at that point, i think the police had spent three years trying to build a case, to find someone culpable,

to find someone to blame. did you question, at that point, if it could be something - she was capable of? of course, it run... it goes through your mind for an instant, where you think, "what do the police know that i don't know?" but in that instant, it's gone in a second, because it's replaced by "i know lucy, i've grown up with lucy." you've spent time interviewing her. what do you make of her? she's a difficult one to work out. because she's emotionless. she wasjust very clinical in her answers. so, she was comfortable, she'd go through medical notes, she would talk to us, she was cooperative, she engaged. but there was no empathy or, or sympathy with what's gone on at all. they told me there had been a lot more deaths and i'd been linked as someone who had been there for a lot of them. did you have any concerns that there was a rise in mortality rate?

yes. ok, so tell me about that — what concerns did you have? i think we'd alljust noticed as a team in general, the nursing staff, that this was a rise compared to previous years. a nurse accused of murdering seven babies has been giving _ evidence at her trial. morning, busy day. i've got quite a few calls to make. in manchester, the defence case has started. and lucy letby is giving evidence. there was complete silence in court as lucy letby spoke in a clear voice, looking directly at the jury and sitting just yards away

from the parents of some of the babies she's accused of attacking. this is the day i've been waiting for for months, because we've had all of these accusations laid out in court, and today is the moment where we get to see her and hear her directly. you know, she's going through the detail of the medical notes, and she's being asked about that quite closely, and she's dealing with those questions in a very assured way. she comes across as a bit mousy, a bit normal. you can't possibly marry that with the enormity of what she's being accused of. lucy letby says she was always on duty as she was willing to do extra shifts, and was trained to care for the sickest babies.

and that staff shortages and poor maintenance had left the unit unsafe. but after seven days in the witness box, the pressure is starting to show. i think she's starting to crack. pressure's getting to her. we had a break this morning. we weren't supposed to have another one until lunchtime and then, and then she asked for one. she said, "i need a break" and you can tell that she's getting stressed. from the start, she's told her friends not to attend court. we've been in contact through writing letters but she's not been able to have any updates about all of her godchildren, because she's not allowed to be told about any information pertaining to children. have all of lucy's friends stood by her? yes. we know she couldn't have done

anything that she's accused of. so, without a doubt, we stand by her. i've grown up with lucy, and not a single thing that i've ever seen or witnessed of lucy would, you know, let me for a moment believe that she was capable of the things she was being accused of. you seem utterly unshakeable on this, but isn't it possible i she's, she's fooled you all? unless lucy turned around, and said, "i'm guilty", i will never believe that she's guilty. have you ever thought that there could be some other explanation for all of this, and that lucy letby is innocent? well, that was the journey we went on in the first year, before we finally asked her to be removed from the neonatal unit. that was a year of looking for all that alternative explanations. and...

we excluded all of those things until we got down to one point, which was lucy letby. i want her to be locked up and i never want her to come out again, because what she's done has changed the course of our life for ever. i think she's a hateful human being. i think she's taken everything from us — absolutely everything. jurors in the murder trial of hereford nurse lucy letby have retired to considered their verdict. ms letby denies murdering seven babies and attempting to kill ten others. you can feel the tension every day here. no one knows if this will be the day when the jury returns its verdict. the trial has been running for ten months. it's five—and—a—half weeks since the jury was sent out.

now, they've reached their verdict. she's guilty. the jury has found lucy letby guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder another six. they found her not guilty of two attempted murder charges, and couldn't decide on a further six. but they have clearly found that letby is one of britain's most notorious killers. and there's a statement from the hospital: i speak for the whole trust when i say how appalled we are at lucy letby�*s crimes.

we are extremely sorry that these crimes were committed at our hospital, and our thoughts continue to be with all the families and loved ones of the babies who came to harm or who died. we cannot begin to understand what they have been through. the jury was only asked to consider seven murder charges. we've discovered that 13 babies died during lucy letby�*s last year on the neonatal unit. she was on duty for every one of them. the police investigation is going wider still. two babies died while lucy letby was training at liverpool women's hospital. are you looking at other cases? yes, i'm sure the public would expect us to, to look at the entire footprint

of lucy letby's career, all the way through lucy's placements at chester and at the liverpool women's hospital. and could that result in, in further charges down the line? possibly. we have informed a number of parents already that we're investigating their child, and they're being supported. the countess of chester hospital is under new management. the unit no longer cares for such sick babies, and there's only been one death in seven years. can expectant mothers coming into the unit have confidence? i think those parents can expect as high a level of care on our unit than any other unit in the country, really. it's upsetting, this. mm. we've got through a particularly

hard time, and... i think we owe it to the families, for them to know that the staff care. lucy letby now faces years in prison for harming babies in her care. but why did she do it? what turned a likeable, fun—loving nurse into a serial killer? i don't think we know why, why lucy letby has done this. and that's really difficult to take. i can't imagine how a parent must feel. it'sjust beyond your- imagination that somebody's on a ward, killing babies. it's unbelievable.

she had everything going for her, and then starts killing babies. what happened ? i think it's something that we'll never know, and i think, as a family, we need to make our peace with that.