Childhood friend of baby killer Lucy Letby says she 'feels so much guilt'

A friend of Lucy Letby says she is enjoying the life the convicted baby killer“should also be living” – and she even feels “guilty” about it. Dawn Howe made the claim in a new ITV documentary that aired on Sunday (August 3) called Lucy Letby Beyond Reasonable Doubt?

The pair met as teenagers and Dawn, believing Letby is innocent, has decided to stick by one of her closest pals. But revealing her struggles, she said: “I am living a life Lucy should be living beside me in parallel.

"We should both be having families and we both bought our houses and we were looking forward to the next chapter of our lives and then all this happened. It is just… there is so much guilt that I am sort of living a life that Lucy should also be living.” She even shared images of Letby laughing and dancing at her wedding, while on police bail for her abhorrent crimes.

READ MORE: Couple 'absolutely traumatised' after stopping for romantic photo by seaside

READ MORE: Missing Michele Ann Joy Bourda mystery grows after vanishing from sunbed next to husband

Letby, who was a neonatal nurse at Countess of Chester Hospital, was found guilty across two trials ofmurdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more.

But speaking to BBC’s Panorama just days after the damning verdict, Dawn said: “Unless Lucy turned around and said I’m guilty, I will never believe that she’s guilty. We know she couldn’t have done anything that she’s accused of, so without a doubt we stand by her.”

Her stance has not changed since then and on the ITV documentary she drove to the school in Hereford where she attended with Letby.

Speaking on camera, she said: “This is where we spent most of our adolescence. It was at this point here where we were choosing which sort of A-levels we were going to do and Lucy was clear that she wanted to go and be a nurse and deal with really poorly babies.

“She was the only one with a clear sort of career path ahead of her that she wanted to do.

“We were here at university and then a few years after university is when she is supposed to have gone off on this killing spree.”

It was also revealed in the programme that Letby attended Dawn’s wedding, which took place after she was first arrested in July of 2018 on suspicion of murdering several babies.

Dawn showed off the pictures, including Letby grinning and dancing, and of the convicted killer throwing confetti into the air.

And she said: “There is Lucy at my wedding. I am just so glad she could be there because it was while she was on bail, she had to get special permission to be allowed to come from the police.”

Dawn added: “Shortly after this she was held in custody so… I don’t think Lucy has seen these.”