A plumber who was called as the only defence of neonatal nurse Lucy Letby said that her and a colleague had to work on a unit where water and sewage sometimes backed up into the wash basins, the jury heard today.
Lorenzo Mansutti, a plumber at the Countess of Chester Hospital, said that on one occasion raw sewage was seen coming out of a hand basin in Nursery 1.
An investigation showed that it was the result of material backing up in the system from Ward 32, which is on the floor directly above the neonatal unit.
Letby, 33, denies murdering five baby boys and two baby girls and attempting to murder five boys and five girls.
All the infants are said to have been attacked on the neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.
Nurse Lucy Letby, 33, denies murdering five baby boys and two baby girls and attempting to murder five boys and five girls
Lorenzo Mansutti, a plumber at the Countess of Chester Hospital, said that on one occasion raw sewage was seen coming out of a hand basin in Nursery 1, the jury heard
On another occasion, in January 2016, nurses used forceps and a length of oxygen tubing to clear a sink in Nursery 4 that had been blocked by a piece of white cloth.
A member of staff had noticed ‘glistening on the floor’ while walking past, and despite the efforts to clear the blockage it backed up again two hours later.
One of the nurses on the unit filled out a Datix complaint form about the incident, which was designated a non-clinical incident or ‘near miss’ with ‘no harm caused’.
Mr Mansutti, the only witness to be called by Letby’s barrister, Ben Myers KC aside from Letby, 33, herself, said there were various blockages in the hospital’s sewage system.
These were often caused by cracking in the cast-iron pipes, originally installed in the 1960s, and led to the plumbing team being called out on a weekly basis.
The witness told Mr Johnson that following the incident in Nursery 1 work had been carried out to make sure it could never happen again.
Mr Johnson asked: ‘So a one-off?’
Mr Mansutti: ‘I couldn’t say yes or no.’
Over the previous 128 days a succession of doctors, nurses and medical experts, together with some of the parents of the babies at the heart of the case, have given their accounts to the jury in Court 7 of Manchester Crown Court.
Some have appeared on several occasions as the prosecution case considered the cases of each of the 17 infants in turn.
Letby herself spent 14 days in the witness box, her evidence spread over a period of six weeks because of a series of delays due to bank holidays, non-sitting days and occasional jury absences.
On nine of those days she was cross-examined, often in minute detail about events in 2015 and 2016, by Nick Johnson KC, prosecuting.
The jury of four men and eight women have been together since the start of the trial on October 10 last year.
They will now listen to closing speeches by both the prosecution and defence, together with the summing up by the trial judge, Mr Justice Goss.
They are expected to retire to consider their verdicts at some time during the week beginning July 3rd.
The prosecution alleges that the Chester University graduate injected some of the babies with air or liquid, and in two cases poisoned the alleged victim with insulin. Letby has maintained throughout her nine-month trial that she was not responsible.
Legal restrictions have meant that none of the babies, nor their parents, can be identified. They have been known by a range of letters ranging from A to Q.
A number of medical staff at the hospital have also been granted anonymity, with some giving evidence from behind a screen.
The trial is due to resume tomorrow.