Lucy Letby: Doctor on ward says he should have gone to police earlier

Thirwall Inquiry. Credit: Peter Byrne/PA Wire

By Jane Kirby, Press Association

A doctor who raised suspicions about Lucy Letby harming babies has said he should have gone to the police earlier.

Dr Stephen Brearey, speaking for the first time since the publication of the Thirlwall Inquiry report into events at the Countess of Chester Hospital, said he was naive to believe hospital managers would act on his concerns.

He was the lead neonatal consultant at the hospital when Letby murdered seven babies and attempted to murder others.

Brearey told the inquiry his warnings about Letby were repeatedly ignored. He also said there is a need to change the culture around raising concerns in the NHS.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “I was naively thinking that raising concerns with senior managers, they had the same values that I did and, once they got it, they would be thinking the same way.”

The hospital carried out a series of internal reviews into a rise in baby deaths in 2015 and 2016, but did not call in Cheshire Police until May 2017.