On Saturday, January 4, Lucy Letby marked her 35th birthday behind bars – a far cry from the sociable celebrations she’d once enjoyed before her crimes came to light.
The former NHS nurse, who was found guilty of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of eight more between June 2015 and June 2016, had led an active social calendar when not on shift at The Countess of Chester Hospital, which included an apparently complicated love life.
During her 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court, jurors heard details about Letby’s mystery boyfriend and her alleged crush on a married doctor pal – whose testimony left her shaken in the courtroom. This comes as former Tory minister Sir David Davis demands a retrial for Letby, 35, sparking criticism from frontbenchers.
Here, the Mirror looks at Letby’s romances before she was locked up, from her workplace flirtations to her mystery boyfriend…
Lucy Letby’s first prison birthday – no presents for baby killer and sniffer dogs check cards
Lucy was described as ‘kind and goofy’ by those close to her
She lived an active social life when she clocked off from the ward
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While Letby was focused on her career, boyfriends do not appear to have been a big feature of her early 20s. However, during the lengthy 10-month trial in 2023 unmarried Letby claimed she did have a mystery boyfriend as she defended herself against allegations that she had an affair with a married doctor on the ward.
During the trial at Manchester Crown Court, it was alleged that Letby murdered two premature triplets in less than 24 hours to get the attention of the doctor, known as Dr A, whom she had a “crush” on. The hospital medic, who cannot be named for legal reasons, shared supportive text messages with Letby following the deaths.
The prosecution suggested their relationship went beyond that of colleagues. After she was removed from the ward, the two continued to meet outside of work for coffee and restaurant dates, shopping trips, and a visit to her home, where she lived alone. He was described by prosecutors as her ‘boyfriend’, but Letby insisted: “I loved him as a friend. I was not in love with him.”
She dreamed of being a nurse, according to a school friend
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It was claimed she carried out murders to get the attention of Dr A, giving her an excuse to speak with him
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The jury heard they exchanged messages at work and at home while her nursing colleagues teased her about flirting with him. In one text shown to the jury, Letby had said she received a ‘strange message’ from the doctor. Her colleague said: “Did you? Saying what? Go Commando (laughing face emoji).” Letby replied with four laughing face emojis but when questioned during her trial, she denied knowing what ‘go commando’ meant.
In another message, Letby protested: “I don’t flirt with him! Certainly, don’t fancy him ha ha just a nice guy.” At one stage, the court was presented with a document citing examples of her social life during the period of the killings. It saw that she and Dr A had been to London together for the day, and messages between them showed a series of love heart emojis exchanged as they made plans to meet.
But it was during this questioning that she appeared to reveal she had a ‘boyfriend’. “[Colleague] was a married man, it’s not a relationship at all it’s a friendship,” she said before admitting she did have a boyfriend at this time. It wasn’t made clear if this was the same person, and no previous partners were mentioned during the trial.
Letby claimed her relationship with Dr A, who she referred to as ‘sweetie’ in messages, “fizzled out” at the start of 2018. But there was no denying her emotions when the man appeared in court to give evidence against her, with Letby visibly distressed for the first time during the trial. She tried to leave the dock, claiming to feel “unwell” but prosecutor Nick Johnson replied: “No, it’s because you didn’t like hearing your boyfriend giving evidence, did you?”
Various disturbing hand-written messages were discovered in Letby’s home. One saw her confess her love for Dr A
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In social media messages, Letby told the medic he was a ‘man of many talents’. On her first day back at work after a holiday in Ibiza, she wrote ‘boo’ when she learned that he wouldn’t be there working with her. Later that day, Child O collapsed, and Letby called for Dr A’s help.
Prosecutor Mr Johnson asked her: “Did you want to get his attention?”, which she denied. The following day, Child P collapsed when Letby was on duty, and Dr A again responded to the emergency crash call. Mr Johnson asked her: “Did you enjoy being in these crisis situations with Dr A. Did it give you something to talk about and message about?” Letby said: “No, Dr A and I were friends.”
When another medic raised concerns after a baby fell ill, Letby sought reassurance from Dr A. He messaged her saying: “No more doubt, it is not you, it is the babies.” He added: “You are one of a few nurses in the region (I’ve worked pretty much everywhere) that I would trust with my own children.”
Meanwhile, her infatuation was made evident after her arrest when police found a note in her home with the name of Dr A and the phrases: “My best friend. Love, I loved you and I think you knew that. I trusted you with everything….I wanted you to stand by me but you didn’t.”
In August 2023, Letby was found guilty of seven counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder during her campaign of terror at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. She deliberately harmed the innocent babies in various ways, including: injecting air intravenously and administering air and/or milk into the stomach via nasogastric tubes, adding insulin as a poison to intravenous feeds, interferring with breathing tubes and inflicting trauma in some cases.
On August 21 2023, she was sentenced to 14 whole life orders – making her the fourth female criminal in British history to have no hope of parole. Whole-life orders are the most severe punishment available in the country’s criminal justice system and are reserved for those who commit the most heinous crimes.
Then, in July 2024, Letby was handed a 15th whole-life term at a retrial after being found guilty of the attempted murder of a premature baby girl known only as Baby K. Last year, the former NHS nurse’s lost her bid to challenge her convictions, and will now in all likelihood die behind bars.
However, there are still those who believe she’s innocent, and there’s even been a campaign to set her free. Most recently, former Tory minister Sir David Davis demanded a retrial for Letby, claiming that the convicted baby killer would be cleared.
Arguing that there was no “hard evidence” implicating Letby, Sir David said that the case against her had been “built on a poor understanding of probabilities”. Sir David told MPs: “If, as I believe it will, a retrial clears Lucy Letby she shall be released in her 30s, not in her 50s.” He continued: “There was no hard evidence against Letby, nobody saw her do anything untoward. The doctor’s gut feeling was based on a coincidence – she was on shift for a number of deaths, and this is important, although far from all of them, far from all of them. It was built on a poor understanding of probabilities, which could translate later into an influential but spectacularly flawed piece of evidence.”
Victims Minister Alex Davies-Jones said it was “not appropriate” for the Government to get involved in court cases. Tellin the Commons that Letby could apply to the Criminal Cases Review Commission if she believed she’d been wrongly convicted, the Labour front bencher asserted that it is “an important principle of the rule of law that the Government does not interfere with judicial decisions”.
The Thirlwall Inquiry, which began in September to examine the events at the Countess of Chester Hospital, took a pause over the festive period but resumed on January 6. It’s expected the findings will be published this coming autumn.
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