Serial killer nurse Lucy Letby was still being paid her NHS salary years after her murderous rampage ended, The Independent can reveal.
Britain’s most prolific child killer, who is serving a whole-life sentence for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six more between 2015 and 2016, continued to be paid until she was charged with the horrific crimes in 2020.
That meant she was still receiving her salary from the Countess of Chester Hospital four years after she killed the last child and two years after she was first arrested.
As a “band 5” nurse Letby, 33, would have been earning between £28,406 to £34,581.
The Countess of Chester Hospital, where Letby carried out her shocking crimes, told The Independent: “Lucy Letby was formally charged by Cheshire Police in November 2020 and at that point, her employment ended. She has not been paid by the Trust since her employment ended.”
Letby was first arrested in 2018 and again in 2019 before being formally charged in 2020. During that period she was suspended from her role on the neonatal ward on full pay.
The news comes after The Independent revealed the Department for Health and Social Care intends to strip Letby of her NHS pension.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay, who has the power to block pension payouts, is looking into all measures that prevent it from being paid to her, The Independent understands.
The NHS Pension Scheme Regulations allow him to forfeit pensions if NHS employees are convicted of crimes – particularly those that are “gravely injurious to the state or to be liable to lead to serious loss of confidence in the public service”.
Doctor who helped catch Lucy Letby describes seeing her stood over sick baby
Based on her salary range and with an annual NHS pension contribution of 8.8 per cent plus an average personal contribution of five per cent, Letby would have amassed between £31,360 and £40,944 over her eight years of employment.
Meanwhile, the families of her victims may be entitled to just £13,000 compensation under the NHS bereavement award, set up for those who lost loved ones due to negligence.
A solicitor representing the victims’ families of Letby’s victims called for the payout to be increased due to the seriousness of the case and seven of the families plan to launch a separate civil action against the hospital.
The news comes amid growing calls for a full statutory inquiry to be launched into the NHS’ failures that allowed Letby to continue her killing spree months after senior doctors first raised concerns.
Mr Barclay announced an independent inquiry after the verdicts were returned, but the grieving families of Letby’s victims, whistleblowers and campaigners are concerned it lacks the legal powers needed to compel those who might come under scrutiny to give evidence.
Dame Vera Baird KC, the former national victims’ commissioner, is the latest person to add her weight to the calls for the probe to be strengthened.
Lucy Letby was still being paid by the hospital two years after she was arrested
(PA)
She told The Independent there “must be a duty of candour” and called for a “radical change of attitude” to victims.
“Poor grieving victims are treated as partisan and their views are downgraded. The scepticism of a complacent establishment,” she added.
The Liberal Democrats’ health spokesperson Daisy Cooper told The Independent: “Letby should never have been able to literally get away with murder for so long.
“This latest revelation raises yet more serious questions and reinforces the need for a statutory inquiry, so that all the facts can be established and to ensure such heinous acts cannot happen again. The families of the victims must be able to get the answers they deserve.”
Downing Street on Monday said “all options are on the table”, suggesting ministers were considering upgrading its powers.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council, which regulates nurses, had suspended Letby from the nurses’ register after she was charged but has still not formally erased her. Following the verdicts, it said it would now look to strike her off.
Last week the former chief executive for the hospital where Letby worked, Tony Chambers, who is among those heavily criticised for ignoring warnings about Letby left his role with an NHS pension worth £1 million, according to reports from The Telegraph.
And Alison Kelly, who was the chief nurse at the time Letby killed and attacked babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital, has been suspended from her current role at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust in Salford.
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She has been accused of “ignoring” concerns raised by doctors about Letby from as early as June 2015 and “protecting” her. She has said she will cooperate with the independent inquiry.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We have ordered an independent inquiry into the circumstances behind the horrific murders and attempted murders of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
“The inquiry has been launched to learn vital lessons and provide answers to the parents and families impacted. We will appoint a chair and set out its terms of reference shortly.”