02 February 2023 , 15:13
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Nurse Lucy Letby wrote a sympathy card to the grieving parents of a baby girl she is alleged to have murdered, a court heard.
The defendant took a mobile phone photograph of the card just hours before the funeral of the baby known as Child I.
The nurse, 33, is accused of killing the premature-born infant, known as Child I, in the early hours of October 23, 2015, which the Crown say was the fourth attempt to take her life.
On Thursday, Manchester Crown Court was told Letby captured a photograph of the card on the morning of November 10 after she finished a night shift - hours before Child I's funeral.
The card had a message written on it that said: "Your loved one will be remembered with many smiles."
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Nurse Ashleigh Hudson's recollection of the position of Child I's cot and the lighting in the nursery when she found her 'pale and floppy' (PA)Letby wrote: "There are no words to make this time any easier.
"It was a real priviledge (sic) to care for her and get to know you as a family - a family who always put her first and did everything possible for her.
"She will always be a part of your lives and we will never forget her.
"Thinking of you today and always - sorry I cannot be there to say goodbye. Lots of love Lucy x"
Countess of Chester Hospital, where Lucy Letby worked (SWNS)Opening the prosecution case in October, Nick Johnson KC said the defendant later told detectives it was "not normal" for a nurse to send such a card.
She added it was the only time she had done it but it was "not often the nurses got to know a family as well", he told the court.
Letby, originally from Hereford, denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others at the Countess of Chester Hospital's neo-natal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.
The trial continues.