Inside Lucy Letby's close friendship with married 'boyfriend' doctor as identity is revealed

Inside Lucy Letby's close friendship with married 'boyfriend' doctor as identity is revealed Married father-of-two Dr Mark Deakin died in June after being fired over text messages he exchanged with baby killer Lucy Letby when they both worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital For months, as Britain watched the longest trial in its modern history, he was known simply as 'Dr A' - a mysterious figure whose presence in the dock caused Lucy Letby to break down in tears and flee. Now following his sudden death at 53, the married consultant whose relationship with the baby killer was thrust into the very heart of the prosecution's case can finally be named as Dr Mark Deakin. It was his friendship with Letby that provided the trial with its most haunting alleged motive. Prosecutors made the relationship a central lynchpin of their case, alleging the neonatal nurse deliberately sabotaged and murdered vulnerable infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital for a dark, selfish, thrill: so the father-of-two would race to her ward to assist the emergency response, and offer her sympathy in the frantic aftermath. Letby fiercely rejected the prosecution's theory, denying that she harmed babies to get the doctor's attention, or that their bond was romantic. While she admitting exchanging more than one thousand messages with Deakin and calling him "sweetie", she insisted they were nothing more than close colleagues who supported each other through stressful shifts. ""I loved him as a friend," she told prosecutors. "I was not in love with him." In one text presented to jurors, Letby told a friend: "I don't flirt with him! Certainly, don't fancy him ha ha just a nice guy." But in notes scrawled with hearts recovered from her Chester house, she referred to him as 'love'. Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC pressed her relentlessly on their 1,355 Facebook messages, meals outside work, shopping trips and a visit to London, branding him her "boyfriend" - a title Letby rejected as she claimed their relationship had simply "fizzled out" long before her arrest. Dr Deakin, who Letby called 'sweetie' in texts, comforted the now 36-year-old after the deaths of her infant patients, reassuring her that he would trust her with the care of his own children. He was also a source of support when questions started to be asked about the number of babies dying on her watch. In a note discovered when police searched her Chester home, Letby had scrawled: "My best friend. Love, I loved you, and I think you knew that. I trusted you with everything... I wanted you to stand by me, but you didn't." Dr Deakin testified against Letby during the trial, causing the nurse to become visibly distressed. She tried to leave the dock, claiming to feel 'unwell', but Mr Johnson replied: "No, it's because you didn't like hearing your boyfriend giving evidence, did you?" The former nurse is now serving a record 15 whole-life terms for the murder of seven infants and attempted murder of seven others between June 2015 and June 2016. She was convicted in August 2023 for the multiple murders and attempted murders, and again in July 2024 after a retrial on an additional charge. Dr Deakin - who was granted anonymity and known as Dr A during the trial - was dismissed as a consultant at Liverpool's Alder Hey Children's Hospital on June 24 for exchanging messages with the baby killer about a child she was later convicted of trying to murder. He was found collapsed in his car the day after and passed away nine days later in intensive care. The medic can now be identified after reporting restrictions were lifted following his death. In their raft of Facebook messages, then-junior doctor Deakin and Letby discussed babies who collapsed when they were on shift together, over a three-month period between June 2016 and September 2016. It was alleged that Letby murdered two premature triplets in less than 24 hours to get the attention of the doctor. When Mr Johnson asked Letby, "Did you want to get his attention? Is that the reason you sabotaged Child O?" she denied it. The following day, Child P collapsed when Letby was on duty, and Dr A again responded to the emergency crash call. Mr Johnson asked her: "Did you enjoy being in these crisis situations with Dr A. Did it give you something to talk about and message about?" Letby said: "No, Dr A and I were friends." When another medic raised concerns after a baby fell ill, Letby sought reassurance from Dr Deakin. He messaged her saying: "No more doubt, it is not you, it is the babies." He added: "You are one of a few nurses in the region (I've worked pretty much everywhere) that I would trust with my own children." He faced a disciplinary hearing in June over a series of texts he exchanged with the former neonatal nurse. The messages, which breached patient confidentiality, involved details of the care of a premature baby boy with haemophilia, known as Baby N. Letby was convicted of trying to kill the infant the day after he was born, in June 2016. Dr Deakin also arranged up to six 'observational visits' for Letby at Alder Hey, where he permanently moved to from the Countess of Chester The doctor also supported Letby's grievance claim against the hospital when she was moved from frontline nursing into an office role after suspicions were raised about babies dying in her care. Dr Deakin arranged for Letby to visit Alder Hey in 2017, where she accompanied him on his ward rounds and clinics, attended a hospital ‘roadshow’ on insulin – the substance she was later convicted of using to try to kill two of her victims and even shadowed a nurse in paediatric intensive care during those visits. Dr Deakin, himself a diabetic, also accessed Baby N’s medical records inappropriately, including after Letby was convicted, the investigation found. Having worked as a specialist diabetes consultant at Alder Hey from July 2018, he was informed by bosses at the NHS Trust that they had launched a formal investigation into his conduct in January 2024, five months after Letby was found guilty. Their inquiry found that Dr Deakin had a close relationship with Letby and is likely to have known that concerns had been raised about her link to the spike in deaths by her colleagues. It is understood that Dr Deakin attended a three-day disciplinary hearing in early June, where he accepted that he had breached Baby N's confidentiality but denied knowing that Letby was under suspicion when he organised her visits to Alder Hey. However, a panel rejected his version of events, and he was fired for gross misconduct two weeks later, on June 23. It is believed relatives reported him missing the following day, and he was found collapsed in an apparent diabetic coma in his car at a retail park approximately 20 miles from his Cheshire home. He was admitted to intensive care but never regained consciousness and died on July 3 at Whiston Hospital, Merseyside. His death has been referred to the Cheshire Coroner, who confirmed ‘preliminary inquiries’ have begun. Hospital bosses would have been duty-bound to inform the General Medical Council, the regulatory body for doctors, about his dismissal, potentially threatening his professional registration and ability to work again. Dr Deakin told the Thirlwall inquiry – the public inquiry investigating Letby's crimes – in October 2024, the Band 5 nurse "misled and maybe manipulated" him into giving her information about babies she had attacked. In one message, Letby asked Dr Deakin about the condition of Baby N, a child she attempted to murder in early June 2016, and questioned whether she had done anything wrong regarding his care. He messaged back: "Oh, Lucy, poor little thing. I am sure he has had the best care possible, and you will have done everything you could for him." Asked by counsel for the inquiry, Rachel Langdale KC, whether such a message was appropriate, Dr Deakin replied: "In hindsight, no. Looking at the content of the messages here, I've shared too much. It's common to give updates on how patients are without naming them, without giving lots of clinical detail to help the recipient understand where that patient is up to. I gave details that I thought were helpful, but I see now that that probably wasn't the case." Dr Deakin went on to support her grievance case against her removal from the neonatal unit to non-patient duties. In her evidence to the inquiry, which was overseen by High Court judge Lady Justice Thirlwall, Baby N’s mother accused Dr Deakin of "blatantly" breaching her son's patient confidentiality. She also revealed she had lodged a formal complaint with Alder Hey about his conduct. The inquiry also heard that Dr Deakin forwarded Letby an email from Dr Stephen Brearey, the neonatal lead at the Countess hospital, in which he indicated that the deaths of two triplets, Child O and P, who Letby was later convicted of murdering, would be investigated at inquests. Dr Deakin explained to Ms Langdale that he did so because "of the worry about those two babies". He said: "They were unexpected deaths. She (Letby) gave me the impression she was very upset… I was basically trying to give her some insight into what was going on." He agreed that, with hindsight, it was an "error" to send the email and he should "not have sent it". Dr Deakin admitted that, at the time, he was trying to be "supportive" but added: "That now feels like a massive mistake. It's something that I've considered on a daily basis for the last six to eight years. The amount of reflection that I've done over this is significant. "I was not aware of the full clinical picture, and I provided support by being misled and maybe manipulated, and for that, I'm really sorry that things have come to an end as they have. I have a lot of regrets over how that period of time took place." The inquiry was told that Dr Deakin had emailed Alder Hey bosses in December 2016 to inform them of Letby's interest in the care of post-operative premature babies and to request permission to observe some sessions in the operating theatre to "facilitate her personal development" as she studied for a master's degree. Despite having been removed from frontline nursing amid suspicions of the spike in baby deaths six months earlier, Dr Deakin claimed he was told it was approved by "whoever was managing Letby at the Countess of Chester" on the basis that she must be supervised at all times and have no direct contact with patients. Letby, formerly of Hereford, was convicted at Manchester Crown Court in August 2023 after the longest-running murder trial in British history. She has always maintained that she did not kill or harm any babies in her care. Letby has twice applied and been denied the right to appeal, but has lodged documents with the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, in a bid to secure her freedom. Do you have a story to share? Email me at [email protected]