He must not be allowed to distance himself from failure to act

THE PARENTS OF MURDERED BABY SLAM BOSS

- IMON MURPHY

THE parents of a baby murdered by Lucy Letby fear a former boss at the killer nurse's hospital now has "a get out of jail free card" after retiring to the South of France with a £1.8million pension.

They want to see the Countess of Chester Hospital's ex-medical director, Ian Harvey, grilled over claims that he could have stopped Letby's killing spree sooner if he had acted on warnings from senior doctors.

The shattered parents - who we are not identifying - said: "Retiring should not be a get-out-of-jail-free card to distance himself from his failures to act.

"It appears he has left the sinking ship with the buoyancy aid of a large NHS pension. This is why we fully support a statutory public inquiry, so we can get the answers we deserve."

Mr Harvey, 65, earned up to £175,000 at Countess of Chester Hospital, where Letby murdered seven babies on the neonatal unit. He took early retirement in 2018, shortly after her arrest, and has been accused by senior consultants of failing to act on fears over the nurse now Britain's worst serial child killer.

Last weekend, we revealed the former chief executive of the hospital at the time of Letby's killing had also walked away from the NHS, retiring earlier this year with a £1.5million pension.