PLATELL’S PEOPLE: Why we all want answers from the top brass at the NHS hospital where Lucy Letby carried out her killing spree
The locked gate of the idyllic Dordogne villa owned by Ian Harvey, retired medical director of the hospital where Lucy Letby murdered seven babies, says it all.
Little wonder Harvey wants to protect his privacy. It was on his watch and that of other NHS executives at the Countess of Chester Hospital that Letby carried out her killing spree.
He says he has had to leave his French paradise because the scrutiny he is suffering following the case has made the lives of his neighbours and friends ‘intolerable’.
Harvey’s neighbours in France reportedly said he and his wife told them they were leaving ‘because this is too much’. And I’m sure his life at the moment is deeply uncomfortable.
But it’s hardly any surprise that Harvey and other managers at the Countess of Chester are at the centre of the storm over Lucy Letby. After all, they were all in positions of huge responsibility, and on huge salaries, while the murders took place.
Harvey, for instance, earned up to £175,000 and left his post shortly after police were called in and first arrested Letby. He took his £1.8 million gold-plated NHS pension with him and retired to his French idyll.
It was on Ian Harvey’s watch and that of other NHS executives at the Countess of Chester Hospital that Lucy Letby carried out her killing spree
It’s hardly any surprise that Harvey and other managers at the Countess of Chester are at the centre of the storm over Lucy Letby
What’s more, whistleblower doctors who raised concerns about Letby and claim to have been ignored, have accused managers of being more concerned about reputations than the safety of their smallest patients.
Some of the managers have rejected claims that they ignored the warnings and, for his part, Harvey has retorted that the doctors should have ‘pushed harder’ to raise their concerns.
But whatever the case, Harvey has to understand that he and fellow managers in the Letby case are bound to be subject to the utmost scrutiny. They were in charge when Britain’s worst child serial killer undertook her grotesque deeds, and until we receive answers in an official inquiry, that scrutiny will continue to seem intolerable.
But nothing like as intolerable as the fate suffered by those poor families who lost their children — babies who had been entrusted to the that they were running.
Red card for woke Nike
After Nike insisted it was a ‘commercial decision’ not to produce replica shirts of the world’s greatest woman goalkeeper, England’s Mary Earps, they’ve been shamed into bringing out a limited edition. This from a firm that employed trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote its women’s sportswear.
When Bud Light got Dylan to promote its lager, it saw £4.8 billion wiped off the parent company’s share price as a result.
Memo to Nike: Go woke, go broke.
Singer Lizzo intends to sue the three dancers who launched a sexual harassment lawsuit against her, vowing to clear her name. Poor love, she must be distraught having to defend her reputation as the world’s largest pop star. Perhaps the silver lining of all this stress is she might finally lose some weight.
Donald trumps Zoolander
Just how long did Donald Trump spend posing in the mirror to get his mugshot pout so perfect?
Just how long did Donald Trump spend posing in the mirror to get his mugshot pout perfect?
Perhaps as long as it took Ben Stiller’s dim-witted model Derek to perfect his Blue Steel pout in the film Zoolander
Perhaps as long as it took Ben Stiller’s dim-witted model Derek to perfect his Blue Steel pout in the film Zoolander.
Wishing Chris Evans good luck with his impending operation to remove an early-stage skin cancer on the back of his calf, spotted by his masseuse. Although I was surprised his wife of 16 years Natasha didn’t notice it.
The Jeneration blame
Jennifer Aniston says her two marriages and other relationships failed because her parents split up when she was nine and thus set a disastrous matrimonial pattern that defined her life and has left her single at 54.
Jennifer Aniston says her two marriages and other relationships failed because her parents split up when she was nine
Sorry Jen, but that won’t wash with me. My role models were my parents Norma and Frank, devotedly married for 70 years — and yet I only managed six years of matrimonial bliss myself and am still single at 65.
As the cost of illegal migration reaches £4 billion a year, Rishi Sunak says we can’t solve the problem overnight.
Not when you have TikTok stars like Afghan Rahat Popal posting videos on the social media platform of their successful journeys, arriving with a thumbs-up sign in Dover on a dinghy before happily reclining on a double bed to watch TV in one of the many taxpayer-funded hotels that together cost us £6m a day.
Kerching! Stella’s booty call
Designer Stella McCartney is pilloried for draping the naked Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, over the back of a horse wearing only a pair of boots as part of her latest ad campaign. It’s ‘animal cruelty’ her critics cry.
Surely the real sin committed by vegan Stella, who refuses to make fashion items from animal products and uses only eco-friendly materials, is charging £1,465 for a pair of boots made partly from ‘production offcuts’.
Designer Stella McCartney is pilloried for draping the naked Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, over the back of a horse wearing only a pair of boots as part of her latest ad campaign
Designer Stella McCartney is pilloried for draping the naked Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, over the back of a horse wearing only a pair of boots as part of her latest ad campaign. It’s ‘animal cruelty’ her critics cry.
Surely the real sin committed by vegan Stella, who refuses to make fashion items from animal products and uses only eco-friendly materials, is charging £1,465 for a pair of boots made partly from ‘production offcuts’.
Meanwhile, my moggie Ted is horrified Carrie named her rescue tabby kitten Shoe, after her designer stiletto fetish.
Ted believes cats need proper names and thinks she could have named it Jimmy, as in Choo, in honour of his uncle, Jim Platell, sadly late of this parish.
As the cost of illegal migration reaches £4 billion a year, Rishi Sunak says we can’t solve the problem overnight.
As the cost of illegal migration reaches £4 billion a year, Rishi Sunak says we can’t solve the problem overnight
Not when you have TikTok stars like Afghan Rahat Popal posting videos on the social media platform of their successful journeys, arriving with a thumbs-up sign in Dover on a dinghy before happily reclining on a double bed to watch TV in one of the many taxpayer-funded hotels that together cost us £6m a day.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt accepted freebies worth thousands of pounds to the Chelsea Flower Show, plus theatre and opera tickets. It does not sit well coming from a man who’s personally worth upwards of £14million but lectures the rest of us on the cost-of-living crisis.
New torture of music-on-hold
After two hours and 31 mins waiting for Sheilas’ Wheels to explain why they’d hiked my car insurance by £245, the phone line cut out. Another 45 mins on hold for an adviser who couldn’t explain it. All the while they played, on a loop, A Whiter Shade Of Pale (I was white with fury) and As Time Goes By. At least they have a sense of humour.
Peter Morgan, writer of Netflix hit The Crown, insists the death of Princess Diana will be depicted sensitively, not least because Elizabeth Debicki, who plays her, adored Diana. Jolly good, but I’m not sure how a tragic car crash that robbed two sons of their mother could be recreated without hurting those who loved her.
As India’s multi-million-pound Chandrayaan-3 space mission lands on the Moon, only the fourth nation to make a successful landing, surely now it’s time to stop adding to the £2.3 billion in foreign aid we’ve sent the country. If India can fund space rockets, they can afford to feed and educate their own people.
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