‘Gang of four’ consultants, according to nurse Lucy Letby, blamed her for a string of infant fatalities in order to hide institutional shortcomings.
The 33-year-old, who denies killing seven infants and attempting to kill ten more, named the Countess of Chester Hospital’s senior physicians whom she alleges were involved in a scheme against her.
For the second day of cross-examination, prosecutor Nick Johnson KC questioned: “Four doctors. Four people, let’s call them a gang. What’s going on here?
Letby replied: ‘They have apportioned blame on to me.’ Mr Johnson asked: ‘The motive?’ Letby said: ‘I believe to cover failings at the hospital.’
She named Dr Stephen Brearey, Dr John Gibbs, Dr Ravi Jayaram and one other doctor who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Earlier Mr Johnson suggested Letby was the only ‘common feature’ and had to be the person responsible for harming the babies.
He said: ‘Do you agree that if certain combinations of these children were attacked, then unless there was more than one person attacking them, you have to be the attacker?’
Letby replied: ‘No, I have not attacked anyone.’
Mr Johnson continued: ‘If the jury conclude that a certain combination were actually attacked by someone, then the shift pattern gives us the answer, who the attacker was?’
Letby replied: ‘No, I don’t agree. Just because I was on shift doesn’t mean I have done anything.’
Mr Johnson said: ‘If the jury conclude, let’s say babies five, eight, 10 and 12, were all attacked, you are the only common feature, it would have to be, you are the attacker?’
Letby replied: ‘That’s for them to decide.’
Jurors have heard that she took a photo on her phone of a sympathy card she wrote to be passed to colleagues attending the funeral of one of the babies – Child I.
Letby is accused of killing the infant at the fourth attempt.
Mr Johnson said: ‘You took a picture of a card, addressed to the parents of a child who had died in dreadful circumstances, at the place where she died.’
Letby told the court: ‘The place is insignificant. My usual behaviour is to photograph things that I send or receive.’
The prosecutor asked: ‘Did it give you a bit of a thrill to photograph it at the place where this poor unfortunate child died?’
Letby replied: ‘Absolutely not.’
She also admitted occasionally visiting the unit at night while not working a shift but said it would have been to fill in paperwork or speak to colleagues.
Mr Johnson said she had been on the unit on a day off when a baby girl, Child G – who she allegedly tried to murder – was seriously ill.
The prosecutor said: ‘You had been having a look at her, hadn’t you? Why are you looking at this child?’
Letby said she was ‘checking on her’ as the paperwork she had come back to complete related to that baby.
Mr Johnson continued: ‘There’s no record of you going into the unit from the swipe data. You would not need a pass to get in. You could ring the buzzer and walk in. People trusted you.’
She replied: ‘To go to the unit at night, you have to have a reason to go. It was quieter at night.’
Letby, from Hereford, denies all the alleged offences said to have taken place between June 2015 and June 2016.
Her trial at Manchester Crown Court continues.