Chilling moment mum caught Lucy Letby with baby screaming as he bled from mouth

The brave mum told how she had never heard 'a baby scream like that' when she saw Letby standing by her bleeding son as she brought him some milk in August 2015

A mum who caught Lucy Letby as she murdered her tiny son has told how that night still “plays through her mind like a film”.

The mother described how her naturally conceived twin boys were “a miracle” after numerous failed rounds of IVF had led them to start the process of adoption instead.

But the pair, born seven weeks early, were attacked by Letby in August 2015, killing one and leaving the other with learning difficulties.

The mother of Child E and F said Letby had seemed ‘kind’, often hugging her and smiling - until she caught her red handed with her screaming son.

She told the Thirlwall inquiry today: “Nine years on I can still play that night through my mind like I’m watching a film.”

Child E&F’s mum described the moment she brought her son some milk to find Letby “shuffling some paperwork” while the infant screamed and bled from his mouth.

“I have never heard a baby crying like that - then I realised it was my baby… I asked Lucy Letby why there was blood around his mouth and why he was bleeding,” she told the inquiry.

She added: “She seemed very abrasive and didn’t make eye contact with me. I think I caught her off-guard. Something had happened to him for him to be bleeding, stable babies don't bleed.”

Child E later died from a fatal bleed believed to have been caused by Letby interfering with his feeding tube. Fighting back sobs, the brave mum told how it was then evil Letby who then bathed and clothed her dead son she had just killed.

The twisted nurse put together a memory box of physical memories of Child E for his parents including moulds of his hands and feet and his bloodstained blanket.

But less than 24 hours after his death Letby then went on to launch her attack on his twin brother, Child F. She tried to kill him by lacing his feeding bag with a large amount of insulin.

The baby survived the attack but his parents told how their world had been turned upside down and their happy family memories over the last nine years tainted by their trauma at the Countess of Chester hospital.

Child E&F’s mum revealed she has since retrained as a bereavement counsellor to prevent any other grieving parents going through what she did.

She slammed “empty letters” sent by the hospital’s former medical director Ian Harvey as like a “tick box exercise” that caused further heartbreak.

And she hit out at staff in the neonatal unit who had exchanged text messages about babies in the unit and discussed nights out while working.

Advocating for phones to be banned from staff on hospital shifts, she said: “These people are trusted to look after the most precious things that we have and to be distracted by phones, messaging about nights out or babies on the unit feels wrong.”

Speaking of the permanent distrust of medical staff she has been left with, the mum told how she now refuses to leave her children’s side.

She said: “My children are not left with anybody, they don’t get left in any medical settings, myself or my husband are always there. The worst ever thing happened to us not once but twice, it isn’t going to happen a third time.”