Lucy Letby wept repeatedly in the arms of a close colleague as she tried to cope with allegations that she was harming babies in her care, a powerful TV documentary will reveal tonight.
She had been banned from nursing and sidelined in a backroom job after hospital consultants suggested she was 'purposely harming babies'.
At the time, one senior nurse expressed shock at the claims, saying Letby's clinical practice as a neonatal nurse was 'second to none'.
She was often accused of being cold and unfeeling during her trial for murder. But she was in fact devastated by the accusations against her, according to Karen Rees, former head of urgent care nursing at the Countess of Chester Hospital where she worked.
The bitter, tearful scenes followed suggestions made by consultants at the hospital that Letby was doing harm. 'She was broken, cried regularly in my arms and in my office, and her mantra to me was, 'Why are they doing this to me? I've done nothing wrong',' said Ms Rees.
