Lucy Letby's chilling eight words to distraught mum whose baby was dying in front of her

Lucy Letby offered to call a priest as she watched a premature baby fight for his life, an inquiry has heard. The mother, a GP, was woken in the night by a nurse after her newborn son, known as Baby C, who collapsed unexpectedly at Countess of Chester Hospital.

She was taken to the neonatal unit where doctors attempted to resuscitate her baby. A nurse, who the mother had never seen before, asked a chilling eight-word question: “Would you like me to call a priest?”

The mother told the public inquiry into Letby’s crimes: “Even though I was faced with a situation where my son was having CPR, I was still quite confused and disorientated as to what was going on, and until I was asked that question, it really didn't hit me that there was a chance he was going to die.

“I asked her. I said, you know, 'Do you think he's going to die?' And she said, 'Yes, I think so.'

“And at the time, I didn't know this nurse's name, I hadn't seen her before, but I believe this was Lucy Letby.”

Her son had been born 10 weeks premature, at just 1lbs 12oz, by C-section due to his growth being restricted in the womb.

The inquiry heard that, although small, the boy was not expected to die by doctors, who were baffled by his sudden death.

Letby killed him when he was just four days old by injecting air into his stomach via a feeding tube and compromising his breathing.

He was the second baby boy murdered by Letby in the space of a week, in June 2015.

Lucy Letby is currently in prison serving a life sentence for the murder of seven infants and the attempted murder of eight more between June 2015 and June 2016 while she was a neonatal nurse.