Investigation into Baby Deaths at Lucy Letby Hospital: Staff may be prosecuted for negligence as police start inquiry

Employees at the hospital where Lucy Letby committed crimes against babies might be charged in connection with the incidents, as police have disclosed that multiple individuals are currently under scrutiny for gross negligence manslaughter.

Detectives have escalated their investigation from a corporate manslaughter probe against the Countess of Chester Hospital to encompass staff members who worked during the period when the former neo-natal nurse carried out the offenses.

Cheshire police have chosen not to disclose the specific employees being considered as suspects, the positions they held, or the number of individuals under investigation. Gross negligence manslaughter carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Letby, 35, is serving 15 whole life sentences after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more, one of whom she attacked twice, on the hospital’s neo-natal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.

Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, Senior Investigating Officer for Operation Hummingbird, said: ‘In October 2023 following the lengthy trial and subsequent conviction of Lucy Letby, Cheshire Constabulary launched an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the Countess of Chester Hospital. 

‘This focuses on senior leadership and their decision making to determine whether any criminality has taken place concerning the response to the increased levels of fatalities. 

‘As our enquiries have continued, the scope of the investigation has now widened to also include gross negligence manslaughter. 

‘This is a separate offence to corporate manslaughter and focuses on the grossly negligent action or inaction of individuals. It is important to note that this does not impact on the convictions of Lucy Letby for multiple offences of murder and attempted murder. 

‘Those identified as suspects have been notified. We will not be confirming the number of people involved or their identity as no arrests or charges have yet been made. 

‘Both the corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter elements of the investigation are continuing and there are no set timescales for these. 

‘Our investigation into the deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neo-natal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital between the period of 2012 to 2016 is also ongoing.

‘Our priority is to maintain the integrity of our ongoing investigations and to support the many families who are at the heart of these. 

‘There is a significant public interest in the reporting of these matters, however, every story that is published, statement made, or comment posted online that refers to the specific details of a live investigation can impede the course of justice and cause further distress to the families concerned.’

No NHS hospital has ever been successfully prosecuted for corporate manslaughter, which is punishable with a fine.

In 2015, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Hospital Trust became the first NHS hospital to go on trial in connection with the death of a primary school teacher, Frances Cappuccini, 30, who bled to death while giving birth via a Caesarean section, in 2012.

Dr Errol Cornish, a consultant anaesthetist, also faced gross negligence manslaughter charges for failings during her surgery.

But the landmark trial collapsed after less than two weeks when a judge ordered the jury to find the Trust and Dr Cornish not guilty due to flaws in the prosecution case.

In law, an individual can be found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter if they negligently breach the duty of care they owe the person who died and it was ‘reasonably foreseeable’ that such a breach gave rise to a ‘serious and obvious risk of death.’

The circumstances of the breach also have to be ‘truly exceptionally bad and so reprehensible’ that it amounts to gross negligence.

Leading criminal barrister Mary Prior KC told the Mail’s Trial podcast that gross negligence manslaughter cases in healthcare were rare.

‘They are very rare and the reason is because of the distinction between civil and criminal law,’ she said. 

‘What you’re dealing with here is whether or not the manager or nurse or whomsoever is actually committing a crime. 

‘And there’s a distinction in law between getting things horribly wrong and being guilty of a crime. And it’s a very important distinction.

‘There’s no intent to kill in gross negligence manslaughter. There’s no intent to cause serious bodily harm. What there is, is an exceptionally bad failure to comply with your duty of care, which provides a serious and obvious risk of death.’

Operation Hummingbird, the police investigation into Letby, remains ongoing and last year detectives confirmed they had questioned Letby in prison in connection with more baby murders.

Officers have pledged to look at the 4,000 infants Letby cared for during the entire ‘footprint’ of her nursing career, which dates back to January 2012, and includes two training placements she undertook at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, in 2012 and 2015.

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