Lucy Letby's doctor 'boyfriend' died after being reported missing on day he was dismissed for swapping messages with the killer nurse

Lucy Letby's doctor 'boyfriend' died after being reported missing on the day he was dismissed for exchanging messages with the baby killer about a child she tried to murder, a coroner was told today.Consultant Mark Deakin, 53, was found collapsed in his car the day after his sacking from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool on June 23 after 'concern' was passed to police. He was admitted to intensive care but died nine days later. The married father-of-two was granted anonymity during Letby’s trial but was named after reporting restrictions were lifted following his death.Just last week the inquiry set up after she was jailed for killing and harming babies found he put his concern for her above his duty to patients.Today new details about his 'unnatural' death were set out at a brief hearing as his inquest was opened at Cheshire coroner's court.Police received 'a call regarding concern for Dr Deakin' on June 23, coroner's officer Amanda Edgar told the three-minute hearing in Warrington.'Their subsequent inquiries resulted in him being found in his motor vehicle suffering from ill health on June 24,' she added. Consultant Mark Deakin died after being sacked from Alder Hey Children's Hospital. He breached patient confidentiality by swapping messages with Lucy Letby about Baby N Lucy Letby, 36, is serving a record 15 whole-life terms after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more between June 2015 and June 2016'He was taken to Whiston Hospital where he received treatment until he sadly died on July 3.'The reason for the inquest is that there is reason to suspect that the circumstances of Dr Deakin’s death are unnatural.'Senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish said: ‘On the evidence I’m satisfied that Dr Mark Deakin will require an inquest.’The inquest was adjourned with a full two-day hearing planned for February next year.No details of his cause of death were given, but sources have told the Daily Mail he was found collapsed in an apparent diabetic coma in his car at a retail park. Dr Deakin had forwarded a confidential email to Letby in an apparent bid to warn her that staff had become suspicious of her behaviour.Following a 2016 staff meeting about babies who had died or fallen ill under Letby's care, to which the neonatal nurse was not invited, Dr Deakin messaged her with details, writing: 'You need to keep this to yourself.'In her report last week, inquiry chairman Lady Justice Thirlwall said the doctor 'blurred boundaries' between his duty to his patients and his desire to help and support Letby, adding: 'He put her first.' At her trial, Letby denied she and Dr Deakin were having a romantic affair and claimed they were just ‘best friends’.She is serving a record 15 whole-life terms after being found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more – one of whom she attacked twice – at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. Dr Deakin was hauled before a disciplinary hearing in June over a series of inappropriate texts he exchanged with the former neonatal nurse while they worked together.The messages, which breached patient confidentiality, involved details of the care of a premature baby boy with haemophilia, known as Baby N. Letby, 36, was convicted of trying to kill him the day after he was born, in June 2016.Dr Deakin arranged up to six ‘observational visits’ for Letby at Alder Hey, where he went on to work as a locum, a year later. He also supported her 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.Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC suggested that the consultant, who exchanged more than 1,300 Facebook messages with Letby, was her ‘boyfriend’ and that she was so infatuated with him that she harmed babies knowing he would be the one crash-bleeped to come and help. Lady Justice Thirlwall's report into how Letby was able to kill and harm babies concluded that Dr Deakin 'put her first' when concerns were raised The Women and Children's Building at the Countess of Chester Hospital where Lucy Letby murdered seven babies and attempted to murder seven more But she broke down in tears and tried to leave the dock when he entered the courtroom at Manchester Crown Court to give evidence for the prosecution.The prosecution suggested it was because she didn't like hearing her 'boyfriend' give evidence, to which she replied: 'That's unfair.'She also called him ‘sweetie’ in texts and referred to him as ‘love’ in notes scrawled with his name and love hearts that police discovered during searches at her home.Dr Deakin, a specialist diabetes consultant at Alder Hey from July 2018, 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 very 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. But he arranged for her to visit Alder Hey in 2017 regardless, potentially putting patient safety at risk. Letby accompanied him on his ward rounds and clinics, attended a hospital 'roadshow' on insulin – the substance she used 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. It is understood Dr Deakin attended a three-day disciplinary hearing in early June, where he accepted breaching Baby N's confidentiality but denied knowing 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 a fortnight later, on June 23. A source told the Daily Mail that relatives reported him missing and he was found collapsed in an apparent diabetic coma in his car at a retail park around 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.It is understood that no note was found beside his body.Lucy Letby worked as a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital between January 2012 and July 2016Dr Deakin was an experienced registrar at the Countess of Chester Hospital where Letby murdered seven babies and tried to murder seven others between June 2015 and June 2016.He told the Thirlwall Inquiry he supported Letby because she was struggling with her mental health and admitted that he shared too much clinical detail about patients, which he deemed inappropriate in hindsight.He was involved in caring for two of Letby's victims as a night-shift registrar in June 2016. Dr Deakin – referred to in the report as Dr U – admitted that he failed to recognise the significance of high insulin levels in Baby L, a twin boy, after the nurse had injected him with an overdose of the medication.Lady Justice Thirlwall disagreed that the incident was a 'collective failure', stating: 'It was a failure by the doctor who was responsible for caring for Baby L at the time, namely Dr U.'The following month, Dr Deakin attended a meeting about the deaths of two babies. Colleagues recalled that concerns about Letby were discussed, but Dr Deakin said he did not recall this and that he did not have any concerns about her.Later, he messaged Letby – who had not been invited to the meeting – saying: 'You need to keep this to yourself. The meeting this afternoon looked at everything with Child O and P from birth onwards, reviewed everything, the room, beds, medical views and actions. We looked at all documentation, medicine.'If you have any doubt about how good you are at your job stop now, documentation was perfect.'The following day, Dr Stephen Brearey, the hospital's lead neonatal consultant, emailed Dr Deakin suggesting that he prepare an inquest statement while matters were fresh in his mind. He said the statement could 'include things we discussed yesterday that might not be in the notes' – a reference to Letby's involvement.Dr Deakin forwarded the message directly to Letby, telling her: 'This email has to stay between us.'He told the inquiry that he had been trying to reassure her and 'give her some insight into what was going on', adding: 'In hindsight that was an error on my part... I shouldn't have sent it.'Saying he had been 'misled and maybe manipulated' by Letby, Dr Deakin said he was 'really sorry that things have come to end as they have'.But in her report, which revealed the staggering catalogue of failures that left Letby free to kill and harm babies, Lady Justice Thirlwall called his actions 'most unwise'.'It is another example of the blurring of boundaries... between his duties to his patients, and his desire to help and support a young nurse,' she added.'He put her first.'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 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.