Doctor told to apologise after Lucy Letby ‘murderer’ claim, inquiry told

Obstetrician Dr Jim McCormack was said to have made the remark during a meeting between medics and senior nursing staff after the sudden and unexpected deaths of two triplets at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit in June 2016.

Giving evidence on Tuesday at the Thirlwall Inquiry over the nurse’s year-long attack spree, the now-retired doctor denied naming Letby and said he did not even know who she was until he was asked seven months later to say sorry to her.

Dr McCormack said that senior paediatricians had called a “very unusual” 7.30am meeting with obstetricians and senior neonatal nursing staff in response to the triplet deaths.

He said that neonatal lead consultant Dr Stephen Brearey told those gathered there was “a concern that a nurse was causing intentional harm to babies upon the unit”.

Dr McCormack said: “I said: ‘Are you saying that a nurse on the unit is a murderer?’ And he replied: ‘Yes.’

“We were absolutely shocked at this stage. Everybody was taken aback, certainly from an obstetric point of view.”

The first he knew there had been any concern at what he had said in the meeting was when he received a phone call from medical director Ian Harvey to go to his office, he said.

Dr McCormack said: “I walked into his office, sat down with him and he (Mr Harvey) said: ‘You are going to have to make an apology to Lucy Letby.’

“Now, I didn’t even know who Lucy Letby was. At that meeting of the paediatricians Steve Brearey didn’t say the name of the person, nor whether it was male or female.”

The inquiry heard Mr Harvey informed him that his reported remark had been documented in an HR report related to a grievance procedure that Letby took out over her removal from the neonatal unit in July 2016 to non-patient duties.

Dr McCormack said: “I told Mr Harvey that’s not the case, it’s definitely not the case. I said: ‘You know, this isn’t right that this is down in an official document.'”

The inquiry, chaired by Lady Justice Thirwall, has previously heard that seven consultants had already signed a joint letter of apology to Letby after hospital chief executive Tony Chambers told them they had “upset” the nurse by linking her to increased number of deaths on the unit.

Dr McCormack said Mr Harvey told him Mr Chambers had “insisted” that he should also apologise in writing.

He told the inquiry: “I was in the position where the paediatricians had apologised and it had already been documented in an HR report so I’m not going to be able to be in a position to get out of this.”

On March 8 2017 he wrote to Letby: “I have been reported to have made an inappropriate comment during meetings with the consultants and senior nursing staff when discussing events related to the neonatal unit issue.

“I wanted to apologise to you if this caused you any distress.

“I am only aware recently that your first name is Lucy and I have specifically avoided knowing your identity or name to try and afford you some anonymity when you return to work in the neonatal unit.

“I have made no specific derogatory reference personally about yourself.”

Counsel to the inquiry Rachel Langdale KC asked: “At the time, did you think you should have to be sending that letter?”

Dr McCormack said: “No, I didn’t. Not at all.

“I was surprised she accepted it because I was really saying nothing. I didn’t actually apologise for calling her a murderer. In my letter I was very careful what I wrote.”

He added it was “extremely disappointing” that the hospital’s HR department did not check with him whether there was any truth in the alleged comment about Letby.

Dr McCormack said: “I couldn’t understand it. I asked Ian (Harvey) if he could he go back and address that with the HR team because there seemed to be something amiss …because I hadn’t had an opportunity to discuss the situation in which the remark was made.”

Cheshire Police were not called in to investigate the increased mortality rate at the Countess of Chester until May 2017 as Letby continued to work there until her arrest in July 2018.

Consultant paediatrician Dr Michael McGuigan told the inquiry his former boss at Leighton Hospital in Crewe gave him a “friendly warning” over the phone two months into his new post at the Countess of Chester which started in January 2017.

He said Tracy Bullock, then chief executive at Leighton Hospital, told him she had become aware of the “situation” at Chester.

Dr McGuigan said: “She said her understanding was there were problems on the neonatal unit, that the consultant paediatricians were refusing to accept there were problems in the standard of care and instead they were pursuing this other line of inquiry.

“She said that there were two particular ringleaders of that and things were likely to end very badly for those two, and she was concerned my reputation potentially could be dragged down along with them if I wasn’t very careful in how I was conducting myself.”

Counsel to the inquiry Nicholas de la Poer asked: “Did Ms Bullock tell you who she got her information from?”

Dr McGuigan said: “My understanding was that her information was from Tony Chambers as a friend and fellow local chief executive.”

He said Ms Bullock did not name the two “ringleaders” but he thought it was “obvious” it would be neonatal clinical lead Dr Stephen Brearey and children’s services clinical lead Dr Ravi Jayaram.

Mr de la Poer said: “And were they acting as ringleaders as far as you were concerned?”

Dr McGuigan said “No. The concerns that were being expressed were the concerns of the whole paediatric consultant body.”

The medic recalled an earlier meeting he attended with fellow consultants and Mr Chambers on January 26 and said beforehand there was “a feeling the execs were after somebody’s scalp”.

He said Mr Chambers told them an independent review from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health had identified areas of neonatal care to be addressed and a separate external case note review had not found any evidence of deliberate harm.

Dr McGuigan said: “He said the consultants weren’t wrong to raise concerns but the way it had been carried out was inappropriate, and he had met Lucy Letby and her parents and had apologised to them.

“He said Lucy Letby would be returning to work on the neonatal unit where the consultants would be expected to apologise to her before that happened.”

The inquiry heard that minutes from the meeting recorded Mr Chambers as saying: “Let’s be clear that we need to draw a line on the past. It’s about how we go ahead in the future.”

Dr McGuigan said that was a “distortion” of what he remembered from a “remarkable, striking” meeting three weeks into his new job.

He said: “My memory is he said, ‘I’m drawing a line under this’, and then he looked up at us and said, ‘Do not cross that line’.

“It was said in quite a severe, stern tone.”

Letby, 34, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.

The inquiry is expected to sit at Liverpool Town Hall until early next year, with findings published by late autumn 2025.