A doctor described during the trial of Lucy Letby as her ‘boyfriend’ has been named and pictured for the first time after he died on the anniversary of the serial killer nurse’s arrest.

Married father-of-two Mark Deakin, 53, died last month shortly after he was sacked from his job at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.

He had been sacked over messages swapped with Letby about one of the babies she would go on to try and kill, according to the Daily Mail.

Letby, who is serving her lengthy sentence at HMP Bronzefield, had exchanged thousands of messages with Deakin, calling him her ‘best friend’ and ‘love’.

In June, Deakin was found collapsed in his car at Whiston Hospital in Merseyside.

He was admitted to intensive care but died nine days later, on July 3 – eight years to the day since Letby was first arrested on suspicion of murdering babies.

He had been granted anonymity during Letby’s trial, but can now be named and pictured.

The newspaper reported that Deakin faced a disciplinary hearing in June over the messages with Letby, which were said to have breached patient confidentiality.

One of the rare displays of emotion shown by Letby during her 10-month trial came in mid-February 2023 when Dr A was sworn in as a witness.

His voice prompted her to break down in tears as she abruptly left her seat and walked towards the exit door of the dock.

When the time came for her to enter the witness box, she said she loved him as a ‘trusted friend’ but was not in love with him.

Jurors heard they swapped 1,355 Facebook messages over four months between June and September 2016, discussing babies who collapsed while they were on shift together.

One such message was Letby inquiring about the condition of Child N, an infant she attempted to murder in early June 2016, and querying with the medic whether she had done anything wrong.

The inquiry heard 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.’

The prosecution accused Letby of having ‘a crush’ on the doctor and that she had attacked those infants to get his attention at work.

Giving evidence to the Thirlwall Inquiry in 2024, which is looking into how the deaths may have been prevented, he said Letby ‘misled and maybe manipulated’ him into giving her information about babies she had attacked.

Letby, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.

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