Lucy Letby faces wait for ruling over bid to challenge convictions

Child serial killer Lucy Letby faces a wait to discover the outcome of her bid to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal.

Letby's lawyers asked senior judges for the green light to bring an appeal against all her convictions at a two-and-a-half-day hearing in London which concluded on Thursday.

Dame Victoria Sharp, who heard the case alongside Lord Justice Holroyde and Mrs Justice Lambert, said that they would give their decision at a later date.

In August 2023, Letby, of Hereford, was convicted of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

The full details of Letby's appeal bid, which was argued on four points, cannot currently be reported for legal reasons.

Dame Victoria previously said it could be reported that Letby's legal team's submissions involved that the judge at her trial wrongly refused legal applications during that trial.

Lawyers for the former nurse, 34, were renewing efforts to bring an appeal before the panel of three judges.

If the judges decline to give the go-ahead for the challenge, it will mark the end of the appeal process for Letby.

The jury in Letby's trial at Manchester Crown Court was unable to reach verdicts on six counts of attempted murder in relation to five children.

She will face a retrial at the same court in June on a single count that she attempted to murder a baby girl, known as Child K, in February 2016.

A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children who were the subject of the allegations.

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