Lucy Letby has been attracting ‘positive comments’ from guards after visiting the prison’s nail salon, it has been claimed.
The killer nurse is serving 15 whole life orders after being convicted of murdering seven babies and on eight counts of attempted murder at the Countess of Chester hospital.
But due to concerns they may be attacked, Letby and her prison mate Beinash Batool have had areas of the prison, such as the chapel or the cafe, closed off to other inmates when they are visiting.
Batool joined Letby at HMP Bronzefield after being found to have tortured her stepdaughter Sara Sharif to death.
It appears the pair are using the Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme to give themselves extra perks.
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The scheme, which is designed to encourage good behaviour, ranks inmates from ‘basic’ to ‘enhanced’.
Depending on the prison, those with either ‘standard’ or ‘enhanced’ ratings can be awarded certain privileges such as having a TV in their room, being able to wear their own clothes and visits.
But a source told The Mirror that the former nurse walks around prison like the ‘Queen bee’ but also can ‘turn on the tears at the drop of a hat’.
‘She managed to get positive comments from these officers, which is so wrong on every level’, they said.
They added that Letby had also used her enhanced status to have her family visits in a special room usually set aside for inmates with children.
She can also visit the Vita Nova restaurant operated by catering giant Sodexo, which offers inmates courses in knife and barista skills, allergen awareness and food hygiene certification.
A prison source told The Sun the unlikely pair have bonded over their love of cheese toasties and the card game Uno to the annoyance of other prisoners.
They said: ‘It’s a grim spectacle. They spend ages at the table playing and get really into it.’
HMP Bronzefield houses up to 550 female prisoners.
Letby could face further charges after the Crown Prosecution Service was handed yet another file of evidence detailing baby deaths and incidents at hospitals where she worked.
‘We will now carefully consider the evidence to determine whether any further criminal charges should be brought’, a CPS spokesperson said.
Earlier this year, Letby’s lawyers submitted an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) for her case to be reviewed.
As part of the application, her legal team submitted findings from a panel of 14 experts that concluded that none of the babies in Letby’s care had been deliberately harmed.
It comes amid concerns voiced by several prominent MPs over the safety of Letby’s conviction.
Last month,former health secretary Jeremy Hunt joined calls for evidence to be reexamined.
He said the expert findings raised ‘serious and credible questions’ about the evidence and testimonies heard in court as well as the interpretation ofstatistics.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Hunt said: ‘Justice must be done and be seen to be done.’
He added that this should not diminish compassion owed to the victims’ families, ‘who have already suffered so much’.
‘Re-examination of the evidence is not a denial of their pain. But it will ensure that all of us can have confidence that the truth has been reached through a rigorous and fair process’, he concluded.
The Thirlwall inquiry into Letby’s case is set to publish its own findings early next year.
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