Lucy Letby's warped bond with parents as dad 'made gun threat to hospital boss'

Lucy Letby's devoted parents, Jonathan and Susan Letby, were in court every day of their daughter's 10-month trial in a show of solidarity - and before then, accompanied her to meetings with hospital bosses regarding her conduct

The parents of Lucy Letby have long defended their daughter despite her killer convictions.

The former neonatal nurse, 34, is serving 15 whole-life orders after murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others during her campaign of terror at Countess of Chester Hospital. The serial child killer targeted 17 babies between June 2015 and June 2016, however she continues to state her innocence.

Her parents Susan and John appear to have been in complete denial of their daughter's crimes and sat through each day of the Manchester Crown Court trial last year - and even moved to a flat in the city centre to be closer to her. It was they who she leaned on when she was being investigated by hospital bosses when she was removed from the ward after her colleagues raised the alarm.

Tony Chambers, the CEO of the Countess of Chester Hospital, met the parents on December 22, 2016, after she had won a grievance procedure against the hospital. In notes from the meeting, Mr Chambers told today's sitting of the Thirlwall Inquiry, which is investigating events at the hospital, Mr Chambers had praised Letby for her resilience and said that she could return to work.

The hearing heard: "Letby's father was very angry," Mr Chambers said. "He was making threats, that would have just made an already difficult situation even worse by threatening GMC referrals for the doctors, he's threatening guns to my head and all sorts of things."

Mr Letby was also said to have "exerted pressure" via phone calls to members of staff at the hospital. So how did this close-knit family unit end in many lives being torn apart? The Mirror takes a look inside the Letby family.

Doting parents

Letby was born in Hereford on January 4, 1990, the only child of furniture boss John Letby, then 44, and accounts clerk Susan Letby, then 29. Neighbours say their daughter was always a 'delight' to her parents. They watched her thrive at comprehensive Aylestone School, then Hereford Sixth Form College and her first part-time job was as a teenager at WH Smith. She became the first member of the family to graduate - with a BSc in Child Nursing from the University of Chester in 2011 - and the couple were so delighted that they took out an advertisement in the local paper.

It read: "We are so proud of you after all your hard work." They did the same again when she turned 21, accompanying the birthday notice with a photograph of their daughter as a sweet-looking child. And while they were said to be unhappy about her moving away from Hereford to start her new job, they helped Letby buy her first home; a £179,000 three-bedroom semi, just a mile from the Countess of Chester Hospital, where she lived alone with her two rescue cats, Tigger and Smudge.

'Constant guilt'

However, Mr Letby, now 77, and Mrs Letby, 63, "hated it" when their only child did not return home after graduating from university, something she admitted made her feel "constantly guilty". The trio's close bond can be gleaned from Letby's correspondence with friends.

She told them her parents found it "hard" being away from her and "worry massively". Messaging a friend who had mentioned emigrating to New Zealand, Letby said: “I couldn’t leave my parents. They would be completely devastated. Find it hard enough being away from me now and it's only 100 miles.

"I came here to uni and didn't go back. They hate it and I feel guilty for staying here sometimes but it's what I want." She told another: "My parents worry massively about everything and anything, hate that I live alone etc. I feel bad because I know it’s really hard for them especially as I'm an only child, and they mean well, just a little suffocating at times and constantly feel guilty." It could be that this feeling of "suffocation" led to Letby seeking attention elsewhere when she was 100 miles away from her parents. One psychologist connected to the case told the Mail Letby was a 'covert narcissist'.

Other text messages sent throughout her murderous spree reveal how she sought sympathy and admiration from colleagues. After the death of her first victim - Baby A - in June 2015, a fellow nurse sent her a message which read: "I hope you are OK, you were brilliant. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do," Letby responded. "Just a big shock for us all. Hard coming in tonight and seeing the parents."

Lecturer in criminology at Loughborough University Dominic Wilmott said he believes some of the nurse's texts suggest she wanted to 'garner sympathy' after the babies' deaths. He said last week that she may have been motivated by a 'pathological desire for attention and sympathy'.

The prosecution argued throughout the trial that Letby also wanted to gain the sympathy of a doctor she had become "infatuated" with. There are claims that she was animated after some of the murders, as if revelling in the drama she had created, leading to the suggestion that Letby was suffering from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, a condition in which carers can intentionally harm children in order to gain attention for themselves.

Inside killer's 'childlike' bedroom

Letby was arrested for the first time on July 4, 2018. Dad John watched as she was led away from her house by police after he had stayed the night when driving her home after one of the family's holidays to Torquay. Close to tears, Letby told the courtroom during the trial how Mr Letby had made her bed following her arrest. Stuffed toys and fairy lights adorned her room, which the jury saw from photographs shown in court. Notes in her kitchen read 'Happy Birthday Mummy' from her cats which were sent by her own mother. Such was the devotion from her parents that mum Susan pleaded with officers: "I did it. Take me instead," when she was arrested at her childhood home in June 2019 and November 2020.

Unshakeable faith

Then before her trial began, the couple relocated from Hereford to Manchester in order to be close by. They were seen making loving glances to their daughter as she sat in the dock. Mr and Mrs Letby were a constant presence, often seen smoking on the court steps during breaks and even went as far as criticising journalists for their coverage.

They complained about the duration, which lasted some ten months, as they had to extend their rent on the flat close to Manchester Crown Court. Their faith in their daughter remains unshakeable, even when the jury convicted her. Mrs Letby's disbelief was laid bare in court when she collapsed sobbing into her husband's arms, at one point shouting: "You can't be serious. This cannot be right."

And in a final sign of solidarity with their daughter following the trial, they were not in court when she was given a whole life order while Letby cowered in her cell. She will now spend the rest of her days in HMP Low Newton in Durham, which has also caged Baby P's mum and Rose West among other villains.