Right so here's my account of the day. Sorry for the delay, it took me a long time getting back home. I didn't get in until 10pm, then was very sleepy.
I got there about 1:10pm
@Tortoise so didn't hear anything about the jury. I don't think they talked about the jury though.
Lucy came across much better than I thought she would. I have seen her described as cocky, sulky, combative, robotic and petulant, but I just thought she seemed very articulate, confident and assertive. This could potentially be because I was seeing her on a different day to those previous descriptions.
In person, she has the capability of sounding very persuasive and is adept at creating extra meaning or impression just using the tone of her voice. It’s not what she says but how she says it. It’s only when you listen to what she’s
actually saying - and sometimes what she fails to say - that you can hear her answers are sometimes inadequate, inappropriate or contradictory. She comes across as assertive and unflappable, even when massively caught out. She will say one thing, then say another thing in the next breath, and say both with absolute confidence as if they are both true. This is why it must have been such a big deal that she fell to pieces after her Freudian slip last week - she just seems unfazed by all questioning.
I can honestly see why, if guilty, she was so good at hiding herself. She has an attractive, soothing speaking voice and is so good at speaking for herself.
She comes across as much worse in print, because that only shows you the content of what she says, not how she says it. The “I don’t recalls” etc don’t seem as repetitive in person.
Some things are missed out in reporting. Nick Johnson makes her read out all the messages and nurse notes out loud. There is also a lot she agrees with (in terms of the nursing notes, timeline etc). She says “yes?” often with a tone to imply “yes, and where are you going with this?”
At one point, she did come across as bitchy, when she said “I had nothing to be jealous of”. Also, I don’t think it was reported but the messages to another nurse around the time of Baby J’s collapse included the other unnamed nurse bitching to Lucy about the nurse called Ailsa. I got the impression they’d bitched about her before.
Nick Johnson was absolutely gleeful at getting Lucy to admit she must have been at Baby K’s cot-side just before a collapse, due to a particular record she entered which would have required getting some papers from her cot. The telling off he got for “belittling” her followed lots of triumphant exchanges. I didn’t perceive that it was belittling. I think he has to emphasise when she’s caught out in a lie because she is so unflappable and doesn’t act at all like she’s been caught.
I think this catching her out about being by Baby K’s cot was the point when a lot of the viewing room sniggered, but I can’t be sure. It was very difficult to remember details, even from one afternoon, and it’s worrying the jury have to remember 10 months worth. It was also quite boring if I’m honest. There was lots of going through nurse notes and nurse allocations to ascertain where everyone was at what point. It was hard to follow at times, but the point was that Lucy was there at or before collapses. I think NJ should have taken more effort to sum up the timelines and main points for the jury.
When discussing the altered handwritten times in the nursing notes, Lucy said “we” about writing them in. NJ absolutely jumped on it and said “
WE?!”
Another point I’m not sure came across in reporting is that premature twins were admitted as an emergency at 6:30am when baby J collapsed. There were not enough staff at that time of the morning and it was all hands on deck to deal with these twins, leaving other babies, including J, unattended to. I strongly got the impression that, if guilty, Lucy would have been trying to sabotage these twins at the same time as Baby J, by taking attention away from them.
Finally, in terms of appearance, Lucy has resting sad face. However, she is not actually sad as far as I can tell, it’s due to her features.
Her eyes have aged in a way that makes them look a bit scary. They are large, downturned and heavy-lidded and a bit sunken or deep-set. She has full lips always held in a miserable pout. Although all things considered she doesn’t look too bad for a 33 year old under a lot of stress. Her face as far as I can tell, is not very expressive. Her voice is very expressive but not emotionally.
She has been described as blinking a lot, it wasn’t that bad and I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t looked at for it. I could only perceive it when comparing her to the female guards sitting next to her. It didn’t look like a nervous tic, it seems to be something her eyes naturally need to do and she does it whether she’s talking or not.
Her accent is some kind of Midlands accent (not Birmingham) and is very pleasant. Some words, like when she said “process” or “fittin’” sounded slightly Welsh.
I’ll see if I can remember anything else, and happy to take any questions.
