Lucy Letby's 'Love Was All We Needed' Notes Resurface as Dr Mark Deakin Is Named After Anonymity Order Is Lifted

Dr Mark Deakin, the consultant paediatrician once described in court as Lucy Letby's 'boyfriend', has been publicly identified after judges lifted an anonymity order that had shielded his name throughout the child killer's trial and the early stages of the public inquiry into her crimes.

Lord Justice Singh granted an application by Associated Newspapers to remove the lifelong reporting restrictions protecting Deakin's identity. Until now he had been referred to only as 'Dr A' or 'the doctor'.

He died in July, aged 53, having been found collapsed in his car at a retail park around 20 miles from his Cheshire home, according to the Chester Chronicle. He died in hospital on 3 July. Cheshire Coroner's Court has been notified of the circumstances and an inquest is expected to open.

Letby, now 36, is serving 15 whole-life terms for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016. She has always denied the charges.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission is examining her convictions, while the Thirlwall public inquiry, which took fresh evidence from Deakin last autumn, is due to publish its findings on 15 September. The inquiry's conclusions are likely to scrutinise Deakin's role, and with his death in July, questions of accountability will now be necessarily retrospective.

1,355 Messages and a 'Crush'

During Letby's criminal trial, jurors heard about handwritten notes seized from her home, some referencing Deakin and bearing the phrase 'love was all we needed'.

Prosecutors said the notes, along with hundreds of messages, pointed to an emotional fixation on the doctor, who was married with children and working alongside her at the time.

Prosecutors alleged Letby developed a 'crush' on Deakin and argued she attacked babies partly to draw his attention and sympathy.

When he first entered the witness box, screened from view under special measures, Letby broke down in tears and tried to leave the dock.

Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC put it to her: 'You didn't like hearing your boyfriend giving evidence, did you?' Letby rejected the claim as 'unfair' and insisted Deakin was not her boyfriend but a 'trusted friend', though she accepted they had been on a trip to London together and met outside work.

Colleagues appeared to see things differently. One nurse teased Letby in a WhatsApp exchange for being 'flirty' with Deakin, and Letby referred to him as 'sweetie' in text messages, the court heard.

Inquiry Reveals Scale of Contact

The full extent of their private contact only emerged at the Thirlwall inquiry, which heard that Deakin and Letby exchanged 1,355 Facebook messages over three months between June and September 2016, after suspicions about her had already formed and she had been moved off frontline neonatal duties.

In one exchange, Letby asked about the condition of Child N, a baby she had attempted to murder earlier that month, and whether she had done anything wrong. Deakin replied: '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.'

Giving evidence to the inquiry in October 2024, Deakin said he had been 'misled' and 'maybe manipulated' by Letby into sharing information about babies she had harmed, including Child N. He told the inquiry's chair, Lady Justice Thirlwall, that supporting Letby had been 'a massive mistake' and that he had 'a lot of regrets' about his involvement.

Grievance, Confidentiality Breach and Dismissal

The inquiry also heard that Deakin backed Letby's grievance over her removal from the neonatal unit and arranged 'observational visits' for her at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, where he later worked as a locum and then consultant.

Child N's mother subsequently complained to Alder Hey that Deakin had breached patient confidentiality by passing details of her son's condition to Letby.

Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust investigated what Deakin knew about Letby at the time of those visits. The Guardian and the BBC have reported that he was dismissed for gross misconduct on 23 June this year after the trust concluded he had breached confidentiality in his communications with her.

Despite some outlets labelling him a 'key witness', prosecutors relied on evidence from a wide range of clinicians and staff to secure Letby's convictions, and none of the counts depended solely on his testimony.