Context
Former Detective Chief Superintendent Nigel Wenham led Cheshire Police’s Operation Hummingbird — the investigation of the Countess of Chester neonatal cluster — from its opening in May 2017. His Thirlwall Inquiry evidence is the principal public-record account of how the investigation was scoped, staffed, and advised. It is the counterpart, from the police side, of the anonymous whistleblower report released in December 2025.
Key ground
Mr Wenham’s evidence covered how Cheshire Police learned of concerns at the Countess of Chester neonatal unit through the Child Death Overview Panel. He said: “I can be very clear and specific when I first became aware of the increase in the number of deaths on the Countess of Chester neonatal unit.” This was 24 March 2017. He was taken through a 27 April meeting note recording a doctor’s “Association of one member of staff. Concern Beverley Allitt” and asked about warnings that a police investigation would be visible and disruptive, which he said, with hindsight, “could be seen as scaremongering.”
His evidence traced the Constabulary’s move from gathering information to a decision to launch a criminal investigation on 15 May 2017, following a meeting with Dr Jayaram, Dr Brearey and Dr Holt that he described as “the most critical and important event following the CDOP meeting on 24 March 2017.” Family visits began the next day. Asked whether the police should have been told sooner, he said: “I was asked to comment in my statement whether, you know, the police should have been notified at an earlier stage and clearly with hindsight and looking back the obvious answer to that is yes.”
Read alongside
The Hummingbird whistleblower report, Dr Dewi Evans’s trial testimony.