Family of girl targeted by killer nurse Lucy Letby may never know why she did it
She was convicted of attempted murder yesterday
The family of a baby girl, who was targetted by killer nurse Lucy Letby, say they'll never know why she tried to murder her.
Yesterday, she was found guilty of attempting to murder an infant during a night shift at a hospital in Cheshire
The 34-year-old was convicted last year by another jury of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
A verdict on the allegation concerning a baby girl, known as Child K, could not be reached and a retrial at the same court was ordered on that single count.
On Tuesday, Letby was convicted after three-and-half hours of deliberation by the fresh jury of trying to murder the "very premature" baby by dislodging her breathing tube in the early hours of February 17 2016.
Letby struck after the infant was moved from the delivery room to the neo-natal unit.
The youngster, born at 25 weeks' gestation and weighing just 692g, was said by the prosecution to be the "epitome of fragility".
About 90 minutes after her birth, Letby interfered with the breathing tube through which she was being ventilated with air and oxygen.
Consultant paediatrician Dr Ravi Jayaram caught her "virtually red-handed" as he entered the unit's intensive care room at about 3.45am and he then went on to intervene and resuscitate Child K.
Dr Jayaram told jurors he saw "no evidence" that she had done anything to help the deteriorating baby as he walked in and saw her standing next to the infant's incubator.
He said he heard no call for help from Letby or alarms sounding as Child K's blood oxygen levels suddenly dropped.
Child K's parents, sitting on the back row of the public gallery, gasped as the jury foreman delivered the verdict and then cried, while Letby blankly looked on from the dock.
In a statement later issued on the court steps, Child K's family said: "Over the past seven to eight years we have to had to go through a long, torturous and emotional journey twice - from losing our precious newborn and grieving her loss to being told years later that her death or collapse might be suspicious.
"Today, justice has been served and a nurse who should have been caring for our daughter has been found guilty of harming her but this justice will not take away the extreme hurt, anger and distress that we have all had to experience.
"It also does not provide us with an explanation as to why these crimes have taken place.
"We are heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb. We may never truly know why this happened."
A separate corporate manslaughter investigation at the hospital by Cheshire Constabulary also remains ongoing.
Letby, of Hereford, will be sentenced for the attempted murder on Friday morning.
She is already serving 14 whole life terms for the seven murders and seven attempted murders, with two bids to kill one child.
A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children involved in the case.