Lucy Letby rejected the advances of a consultant who “made it clear he had an interest in her”, a public inquiry has heard.

The alleged pass was said to be one of “lots of rumours” going around as Letby was removed from the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit in July 2016 after a series of sudden and unexplained deaths and collapses of babies.

Letby was redeployed to clerical duties after all seven paediatric consultants told hospital bosses they feared she was deliberately harming infants.

The nurse complained to the health trust about her removal and a grievance hearing later concluded no evidence of any wrongdoing had been provided.

Letby never returned to her duties in the neonatal unit but remained employed at the hospital until she was arrested in July 2018, more than a year after Cheshire Police were finally called in to investigate.

The independent chairwoman of the grievance hearing, which took place in December 2016, later told Cheshire Police she felt at the time that Letby was the victim of a “witch hunt”.

Annette Weatherley told police: “The consultants are doing their own kind of investigation whatever it was they were doing, whether they liked or disliked her, there were lots of rumours around.

“They decided it was her, she was the baby killer. They were openly talking about her as the baby killer. They went to the trust and they said ‘she is the baby killer, we don’t want her on the unit’.”

One of the rumours Ms Weatherley outlined was the advances made to Letby by a consultant, the Thirlwall Inquiry into the events surrounding the killer nurse’s crimes was told.

Ms Weatherley told detectives: “I can’t remember who said it but there was a rumour… a consultant had made it clear he had an interest in her and she had rebuffed it.”

The officer asked: “What, physically?”

Ms Weatherley replied: “Yes physically. It was someone that told me that, I can’t remember who it was when I was there but there was a rumour.”

The inquiry has heard previously that Letby denied to a nursing manager that either neonatal clinical lead Dr Stephen Brearey or children’s services lead Dr Ravi Jayaram had ever made a pass at her.

Karen Rees, the then head of nursing in urgent care, said she had queried whether there was a “personal motive” to the concerns expressed about Letby by both consultants.

She said: “I asked her if either of them had ever made a pass at her. She replied ‘absolutely not’.”

Letby, 34, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.

The inquiry is expected to sit until early 2025, with findings published by late autumn of that year.