Lucy Letby was victim of a 'witch hunt' inquiry into the nurse hears

Lucy Letby was subjected to a 'witch hunt' because she rejected the advances of a senior doctor, the public inquiry heard today.

The alleged pass by the unnamed paediatrician was one of 'lots of rumours' going round after the nurse was removed from working on the Countess of Chester Hospital's neo-natal unit in July 2016.

Letby, 34, was redeployed into an administrative role after the deaths of two triplet brothers on consecutive shifts. 

Medics on the unit had noticed she was on duty when other babies also collapsed or died unexpectedly and all seven senior consultants demanded hospital bosses remove her amid fears she was deliberately harming infants.

But Letby was furious and soon afterwards lodged a formal employment grievance with the Trust. 

She also alleged she had been bullied and harassed by Dr Stephen Brearey, the unit's lead consultant. No evidence of wrongdoing by Letby was found and the grievance was upheld.

Annette Weatherley, a senior nurse at a neighbouring hospital who was brought in to independently chair the grievance, in December 2016, later told Cheshire police that, at that time, she believed Letby was the victim of a 'witch hunt.'

She told detectives: 'The consultants are doing their own kind of investigation whatever it was they were doing, whether they liked or disliked her, there were lots of rumours around.

'They decided it was her, she was the baby killer. They were openly talking about her as the baby killer. They went to the Trust and they said, 'she is the baby killer, we don't want her on the unit'.'

When asked about the rumours specifically, Ms Weatherley police: 'There was rumour that she had rebuffed a consultant who had made it clear he had an interest in her.'

An officer said: 'What? physically?'

Ms Weatherley replied: 'Yes, physically. It was someone that told me that, I can't remember who it was when I was there, but there was a rumour.'

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The inquiry has heard that Letby was asked directly by senior manager Karen Rees, then director of nursing for urgent care at the Countess, if Dr Brearey or Dr Ravi Jayaram, the lead consultant on the children's ward, had ever made a pass at her. Letby replied: 'Absolutely not.'

Giving evidence today, Ms Weatherley told the inquiry that the hospital's executive team should have suspended Letby and called in police as soon as the consultants had raised the issue of 'perceived commonality' with Letby's presence on duty when babies died.

Letby is currently serving 15 whole life tariffs after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess, between June 2015 and June 2016.

The inquiry, at Liverpool Town Hall, is expected to run until January.