A FLINTSHIRE woman whose baby died on the unit where Lucy Letby worked has said she is "sickened" by a photo of the nurse with her son.

Emily Morris, Queensferry, said she was set to go home with her one-month-old son, Alvin, when he died in 2013.

Alvin had muscular dystrophy - and was on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital. He was due to go home, but, to his family's shock, died suddenly. 

And now, on the back of Lucy Letby's conviction for the murder of seven babies and attempting to kill six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016, she wants police to investigate her baby's death.

Her partner, Mark Lewis, said: "They (hospital and the police) said they he died of natural causes - but we think different."

Ms Morris said they saw a haunting photo of Letby, who was working on the unit baby Alvin was on, for the first time on Thursday. It shows Letby next to Ms Morris who's holding baby Alvin.

It had been stored on a disc included in a memory box and they did not have a laptop on which they could download the images.

"It shocked us. It's really hard, to see a person who has done that to those babies next to you. It makes you sick," she told the BBC.

"You can see she is grabbing his blanket. I have told everybody that she did that and now there's proof. That's proof that she was with him."

Ms Morris said she was first concerned about Letby's behaviour when she attended her son's christening at the hospital.

"She wanted to touch him and change the bedding and constantly wanted to lean over him," she said.

"And you just think, 'that's weird for a nurse'. But all the other nurses were absolutely fine with him. At the christening, when my family was leaning over the pram to make a fuss of him, she was constantly keeping her eyes on my family."

Letby was given a whole-life sentence, meaning she will spend the rest of her life in prison.

The UK government's Department of Health and Social Care has ordered an independent inquiry to look at the wider circumstances surrounding what happened, including the handling of clinicians' concerns.

Letby wrote a message in Alvin's christening book, which read: "To Alvin, with love on your special day."

Ms Morris said: "It was heartbreaking, seeing her name in the book, because of all the things we read in the news saying the kids that got targeted were the ones she wrote to.

"So I think in my heart Alvin might have been targeted."

The Leader:

Ms Morris said police investigating Lucy Letby told her in 2018 that they had not found any suspicious circumstances in Alvin's case, but called on them to re-examine the evidence.

"I would feel sick to my stomach knowing that she hurt my boy, because he was the happiest baby in the world, giggling and laughing, loving life," she said.

"So I would really hate it if she had actually hurt my son."

Mr Lewis said he welcomed the news that the independent inquiry into the Letby case would have powers to compel witnesses to give evidence.

He said "every single case that was involved with Lucy Letby" should be considered.

"Families need answers," he said.

Det Supt Paul Hughes of Cheshire Police said: "The Operation Hummingbird Team is committed to a complete and thorough investigation into the full period of time that Lucy Letby was employed as a nurse, either while at the Countess of Chester Hospital or on placement at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

"This investigation remains ongoing, through a transparent and open-minded process. The families of all babies, who are part of this investigation, have been informed and are supported. We will of course provide a more detailed update when we can.”