Lucy Letby's doctor 'boyfriend', who died soon after being sacked for exchanging messages with the baby killer about a child she tried to murder, can be named for the first time. 

Consultant Mark Deakin, 53, was found collapsed in his car the day after he was dismissed from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool in June.

He was admitted to intensive care but died nine days later. 

Mr Deakin, a married father-of-two, was granted anonymity during Letby’s trial but can be named and pictured for the first time after reporting restrictions were lifted following his death.

The Court of Appeal lifted the anonymity order on Wednesday, following an application from the Mail’s lawyers.

Lord Justice Singh said he had considered ‘moving’ representations from Mr Deakin’s family and expressed his condolences to his wife and wider family, but said the restrictions could not be maintained given the 'principle of open justice' and the 'right of the media to report fairly on court proceedings'.

‘In the sad circumstances which have now arisen, when [Mr Deakin] is no longer alive, the rationale of the underlying order made by Goss J (Letby’s trial judge) and the orders made by the High Court and continued by this Court, is no longer relevant,’ the judge said.

‘In those circumstances, it is no longer necessary and proportionate to continue the restrictions on the principles of open justice and freedom of expression.’

Alder Hey remained neutral on whether his anonymity should be lifted.

Mr Deakin was hauled before a disciplinary hearing in June over a series of inappropriate texts he exchanged with the former neo-natal nurse while they worked together at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

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.

Mr 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.

At her trial, Letby denied she and Mr Deakin were having a romantic affair and claimed they were just ‘best friends’.

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. 

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.

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.

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 between June 2015 and June 2016.

Mr 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 Mr 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.

Mr Deakin, himself a diabetic, also accessed Baby N's medical records inappropriately, including after Letby was convicted, the investigation found. 

It is understood Mr 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 the following day 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 but 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 doctors' regulator, the General Medical Council, about his dismissal, potentially threatening his professional registration and ability to work again.

Mr 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.

The then junior doctor swapped 1,355 Facebook messages with Letby, discussing babies who collapsed when they were on shift together, over a three-month period between June 2016 and September 2016.

The pair also exchanged more messages about their private lives, sometimes late at night, met up for walks and meals and went on day trips to London together in their free time away from work.

In one message Letby asked Mr Deakin about the condition of Baby N and queried whether she had done anything wrong concerning 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, Mr 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.’

In her evidence to the inquiry, which was overseen by High Court judge Lady Justice Thirlwall and is set to report later this year, Baby N’s mother accused Mr 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 Mr Deakin forwarded Letby an email from Dr Stephen Brearey, the neonatal lead at the Countess, 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.

Mr Deakin explained to Ms Langdale that he did so because ‘of the worry about those two babies.’

‘They were unexpected deaths,’ he said. ‘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'.

Mr 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 Mr Deakin emailed bosses at Alder Hey in December 2016 to say Letby, who was studying for a masters degree, had an interest in the care of post-operative premature babies and wanted to observe some theatre sessions to ‘facilitate her personal development’. She had been removed from frontline nursing by bosses at the Countess because of concerns about her link to the spike in baby deaths six months earlier.

Mr 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 patient contact.

The inquiry was told that Letby went on to attend a multi-disciplinary team meeting in March 2017 at Alder Hey and may also have attended an outpatient clinic with Mr Deakin in the same month. She was also at a ‘roadshow meeting’ relating to insulin – the substance she used to try to kill two of her victims – at the hospital in April 2017.

In an email shown to the inquiry Letby also claimed she had shadowed a nurse on paediatric intensive care at Alder Hey around that time.

The inquiry heard the visits were made possible because Karen Rees, who was the head of nursing in the urgent care division at the Countess, sent a letter of approval to Alder Hey. 

The letter stipulated that Letby must have no direct contact with patients and should be supervised at all times but made no mention of the fact that she had been suspected of causing harm.

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.