When five-month-old Paul Crampton mysteriously collapsed in hospital, one nurse stood silently in the shadows as doctors battled to save him.
His worried parents David and Kath paid little more than a glance to Beverley Allitt, a lurker observing tiny Paul desperately struggling for life in Ward Four.
They’d arrived to see their precious boy in the arms of another staff member at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital in Lincolnshire. He looked cold, clammy, lethargic and was obviously in some distress.
Allitt, then 22, stepped forward to chillingly remark: ‘This child is hypo’, meaning he had hypoglycaemia because his blood sugar levels had dropped dangerously low.
Unbeknown to all those present, Allitt – dubbed the ‘Angel of Death’ – was a serial killer attacking babies in her care nearly a quarter of a century before Lucy Letby.
As Lady Justice Thirlwall’s inquiry concluded last week infants murdered by neonatal nurse Letby might have been saved at the Countess of Chester Hospital but warnings about the Allitt case were ignored.
As the Cramptons sat at home watching TV news, it brought back painful memories.
Father-of-three Mr Crampton – who believes lessons still haven’t been learned – told The Crime Desk it was his wife who first suspected something was amiss with the treatment Paul received.
Beverley Allitt (pictured) – dubbed the ‘Angel of Death’ – was a serial killer attacking babies in her care
Paul Crampton suffered the first of three unexplainable collapses after being poisoned with huge doses of insulin after being admitted to hospital in March 1991
Letby, 36, murdered seven infants and attempted to murder seven more, one of whom she attacked twice, between June 2015 and June 2016
Her fears were confirmed when police told them their son was one of 13 children attacked by Allitt over 59 days. Four victims were murdered in a spree that has striking parallels to the Letby case.
In March 1991, Paul was admitted with a chest infection as a precaution.
The baby had been expected to make a quick recovery and return home. But within hours, Paul suffered the first of three unexplainable collapses after being poisoned with huge doses of insulin.
‘I remember [Allitt] from the hospital,’ says retired construction director Mr Crampton, 71, who lives near Lincoln.
‘She was an unremarkable person. She was a member of the medical staff. Did she stand out? Not really. Did I particularly warm to her? Probably not. To me, there wasn’t a clue that she was doing things to children in the hospital.
‘But Kath felt strongly that something was being done to him. This wasn’t an illness.
‘She spoke to the person responsible. However, it seemed beyond their experience and they didn’t know how to manage or deal with the developing crisis.’
A pathology report showed Paul had 43,147 milliunits of insulin in his blood, one of the highest levels ever found in a human a normal reading is in the order of 10 to 13. Detectives believe Allitt had injected a whole adult syringe of the hormone into his body.
Pages from the ward allocation log at the time of Paul’s admission had been ripped out. They were discovered in a drawer during a search of Allitt’s address.
She was given 13 life sentences in 1993 for killing seven-month-old Liam Taylor, 11-year-old Timothy Hardwick, two-month-old Becky Phillips and 15-month-old Claire Peck and harming nine others, including Paul. She claimed to be suffering from Munchausen’s syndrome by Proxy.
A pathology report showed Paul had 43,147 milliunits of insulin in his blood, one of the highest levels ever found in a human
Allitt was given 13 life sentences in 1993 for killing seven-month-old Liam Taylor, 11-year-old Timothy Hardwick, two-month-old Becky Phillips and 15-month-old Claire Peck and harming nine others, including Paul
‘In court, she was a sad individual about to face the full force of the law for her crimes,’ Mr Crampton adds.
A 1994 independent inquiry, chaired by Sir Cecil Clothier, into Allitt’s crimes found a string of failings.
Paul was transferred to another hospital, Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre, where he made a full recovery.
The now 35-year-old is developing a successful career after obtaining a master’s degree and has a daughter of his own.
Yet two decades after he was attacked by Allitt, Letby, 36, murdered seven infants and attempted to murder seven more, one of whom she attacked twice, between June 2015 and June 2016. She used insulin to try to kill at least two babies.
Lady Justice Thirlwall’s report condemned Countess of Chester senior executives for mounting an ‘exercise in spin’ that ‘prized’ protecting the reputation of the hospital over investigating why infants died at the hands of Britain’s most prolific child serial killer. A police probe had been stalled and whistleblowing doctors targeted, the inquiry found.
Letby, who maintains her innocence, is serving 15 whole-life terms and has twice been denied permission to appeal against her convictions.
Justice Thirlwall referenced Allitt and nurse Victorino Chua, who murdered and poisoned patients at Stockport’s Stepping Hill Hospital, saying: ‘Nurses do kill. It is not unthinkable. All doctors, nurses and managers should know that.’
Paul was transferred to another hospital, Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre, where he made a full recovery
She added: ‘Despite professed awareness within the safeguarding team of the case of Beverley Allitt and the Allitt Inquiry’s recommendation to be alert to the possibility of malevolent intervention by health professionals as a cause of unexplained clinical events, the training delivered did not include information about the possibility of a staff member harming children.’
Reflecting on the Allitt and Letby cases, Mr Crampton said they demonstrated the ‘inability’ of two hospitals to identify suspicious circumstances and order immediate action.
‘Someone should have spotted that sequence of events and said, ‘Hey, what’s going on here’,’ he adds.
‘With the Letby case, I understand that people raised a red flag and it would appear that wasn’t necessarily reacted to.
‘I think it’s true of every aspect of our society, if a whistleblower said something there needs to be a thorough review of what they’re saying and an investigation to see if it is correct.’
He added: ‘I’m very clear. The NHS is a national asset – it’s something we need to treasure and look after.
‘Like all institutions, it will make mistakes and needs to be held to account for those mistakes.
‘The vast majority of people who work in the health service are decent, kind and caring people, that’s why they joined the profession. Allitt is a very unusual person. Therefore, let’s not let that reflect on all those thousands of caring people that do a really good job every day.’
Allitt had originally been a favourite on the children’s ward. Doctors found her helpful and patients’ parents adored her.
When their children unexpectedly collapsed at an alarming rate, Allitt always seemed to be there to help. One unwitting family asked her to become a godmother.
The now 35-year-old is developing a successful career after obtaining a master’s degree and has a daughter of his own
Tragically, that adoration had grown because of her warped deeds. It later emerged she had administered high doses of insulin, potassium and even air to some of her victims.
In her home village, Allitt had been considered pleasant, quiet and brought up in a stable home.
Her father Richard worked in an off-licence and mother, Lillian, was a school cleaner. Neither they nor their other two daughters and son saw anything particularly disturbing in her behaviour as a child or as an unstylish and hefty teenager.
She attended Charles Read Secondary Modern school and would often volunteer for babysitting jobs. After leaving school aged 16, she took a course in nursing at Grantham College. However, her ordinary exterior concealed a secret side. Violent episodes, faked injuries and a rape lie suggested an attention-seeking personality.
She was the only nurse on her course to fail to get a job immediately on qualifying. A hospital in Boston turned her down on the grounds of “insufficient experience”.
But back at Grantham, there was a severe staff shortage at the town’s hospital. Allitt begged for a chance to do further training there and was given a six-month contract.
Within a week of moving into the new ward, her first victim Liam Taylor died from a heart attack.
Now aged 57 and having served a minimum of 28 years and 175 days in jail, Allitt is eligible for release.
But she is being held in Rampton high-security hospital. She must appear before a panel of experts and is assessed every three years for a transfer to a mainstream prison, where she could apply for parole. Her latest assessment is due in 2026.
The Ministry of Justice said there is no evidence that has happened. Rampton did not respond.
Mr Crampton doesn’t believe Allitt should be allowed to trick her way to freedom.
He said: ‘I think it was generally accepted by most people, that Allitt is a manipulative individual, and she probably manipulated herself into a hospital, which would give her a better life than in prison.
‘I don’t spend too much energy thinking about where Allitt is. At the end of the day, the fact she’s incarcerated means she hasn’t the freedom to do what most of us do in our lives.
‘I can understand the argument that a prison would be more appropriate for her crimes.’
Mr Crampton added: ‘It was a very traumatic experience, clearly. But Paul is well, fit and healthy. He completed his education, went on to do a degree and now is building a career like I was in my thirties.
‘Our ability to look back on that difficult time is to be tempered by the fact that we’ve got a son who is fit and well.
‘As a family we always talked openly about what happened in Grantham Hospital and that the doctors and nurses are caring people.
‘Allitt and her crimes are rare. I hope and believe this openness has given us all a balanced view of her actions.
‘Some people suffered such a trauma, I wonder how you can you ever get over that.
‘I still gave a son which makes it easier for me to put the traumas behind me and move on with our family life.’
The Crampton family are raising money for the Lincolnshire Emergency Blood Bikes Service. If you wish to donate, visit https://lebbs.org/
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