Countess of Chester senior nurse said placements would give Letby ‘break’ from stress, despite knowing she was under investigation over babies’ deaths

Lady Justice Thirlwall at Liverpool town hall, where the inquiry is being held. Photograph: Getty Images

Lucy Letby was encouraged by a senior nurse to undertake regular visits to Alder Hey children’s hospital despite her being under investigation on suspicion of murdering babies, a public inquiry has heard.

Letby, 34, was told the placements would give her “a break from the stress here”, weeks before police were called over the unexplained deaths and deterioration of newborns at the Countess of Chester hospital.

Kathryn de Beger, the hospital’s head of occupational health, told the Thirlwall inquiry on Wednesday that she was responsible for supporting the now-jailed nurse after she was removed from the neonatal unit in July 2016.

De Beger said she knew that Letby was accused of murdering babies when she encouraged the visits to Alder Hey in April 2017, but that she assumed they had been agreed by senior managers.

The inquiry heard this week that the placements between January and April 2017 were arranged “informally” by a doctor who had struck up a close friendship with Letby, and that senior managers at Alder Hey were unaware she was under investigation.

In an email on 25 April 2017, about two weeks before the police were contacted, De Beger told Letby: “I think going to Alder Hey is a good idea … I think you should go to Alder Hey regularly. It would give you a break from the stress here.”

Asked why she thought the placements would be a good idea given Letby was suspected of murdering babies, De Beger said: “Because I would have assumed that that was in place and agreed by senior managers and, if it was agreed, which I assumed it was, then to be away from the stress at the Countess would have been a good idea for her health and wellbeing.”

De Beger was asked by Andrew Bershadski, counsel to the inquiry, whether she had believed at that stage that the allegations against Letby were false and that she was therefore “safe” to visit Alder Hey. She replied: “That’s not my remit at all.”

The hearing at Liverpool town hall was told that the senior nurse, whose department was part of HR, exchanged about 750 text messages with Letby over a 15-month period.

De Beger agreed that supporting a staff member by WhatsApp was unusual but that she was the only person with responsibility for helping Letby’s mental wellbeing and went “above and beyond” to do it.

In one email read to the inquiry, sent in early 2017, De Beger told Letby: “I understand why you are feeling like you are but you have all the reassurance that the execs and us support you returning to the [neonatal unit] and that is where you belong.”

The hearing at Liverpool town hall heard that Letby texted De Beger in April 2017 – nine months after she was removed from the neonatal unit – saying: “I feel as though this must be my fault and maybe I have done something wrong to the babies and blame myself – do you think that’s normal?”

De Beger was asked whether this concerned her given the accusations against the neonatal nurse.

She replied: “No I didn’t because at that time, in April 2017, I believe that mediation between the clinicians and Lucy Letby had broken down and she was very distressed about that.

“It was a plan to return her to the neonatal unit at the beginning of April and that had been paused so she was very upset about that.

“I do remember at this time that she was very very distressed, very very confused about why she couldn’t go back, why it had been paused, why she couldn’t go back when she had been visiting the unit. So I felt that was an explanation of all those mixed emotions and her confusion about what was happening.”

De Beger said she should have had clinical supervision to assist her in supporting Letby given the seriousness of the allegations and that, if this had been in place, she might have mentioned it to them.

She added that Letby would regularly tell her she had done nothing wrong and ask: “Why were people doing this to her? Why did the consultants hate her so much?”

De Beger also told the inquiry that Letby had requested a meeting with her on the anniversary of one of thebaby’s deaths when she was feeling “particularly distressed”. She said Letby told her: “I’m distressed but how much more distressed would the parents be at the loss of their baby.”

Letby, who denied the charges, is serving a whole-life prison term after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others. Some experts have raised doubts about the convictions but those are not being considered by the Thirlwall inquiry.