Beneath chandeliers in the hall's grand ballroom, the Countess of Chester's respective former directors of nursing Alison Kelly, medical Ian Harvey, HR Sue Hodkinson, and ex-chief executive Tony Chambers spoke in public for the first time.

Tony Chambers led the NHS trust where neonatal nurse Lucy Letby, who fatally attacked babies between June 2015 and June 2016, worked. He has apologised to the families of her victims at an inquiry into events at the hospital.

The former Chief Executive of the Countess of Chester Hospital rejects claims he stalled police investigation into baby deaths there | ITV News Granada

The former chief executive of the hospital where Lucy Letby attacked and killed babies has denied "stalling" the police investigation into her crimes. Tony Chambers was in charge at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016 when Letby murdered seven infants and tried to kill another seven.

After Letby was removed from caring for babies over safety concerns, then-hospital chief executive Tony Chambers told her: “Your resilience, Lucy, you astound me.”

Police were finally brought in to investigate the concerns in May 2017, although plans were in place weeks before to return Letby to the unit

The former medical director of the hospital where Lucy Letby murdered babies has apologised to consultants “if they felt intimidated” by him. Ian Harvey was the most senior doctor at the Countess of Chester Hospital when the nurse killed seven infants and tried to take the lives of seven others between 2015 and 2016.