Former neonatal nurse, Lucy Letby, found guilty of attempted murder

The 34-year-old had been facing a retrial - after already being convicted for killing seven infants and attempting to murder six others

Author: Olivia DaviesPublished 2nd Jul 2024

Former nurse Lucy Letby has been found GUILTY of attempting to murder a baby girl.

The 34-year-old had been facing a retrial - after already being convicted for killing seven infants and attempting to murder six others.

Letby was handed 14 whole life orders last August, for crimes she committed whilst working at the Countess of Chester Hospital, between June 2015 and June 2016.

During the initial trial, the jury was unable to reach verdicts on a further six counts of attempted murder. This retrial was on one of those counts, relating to the death of a baby girl in February 2016.

Throughout the four week trial, Doctor Jayaram, a consultant paediatrician, said he saw Letby standing over Baby K's incubator, doing nothing, whilst her tube was dislodged.

Letby insisted she has never intended or tried to harm any baby in her care.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Nicola Wyn Williams, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire’s Complex Casework Unit, said:

“Lucy Letby has continually denied that she tried to kill this baby or any of the babies that she has been convicted of murdering or attempting to murder. The jury has heard all of the detailed evidence including from her in her own defence and formed its own view.

“Our case included direct evidence from a doctor who walked into the nursery to find a very premature baby desaturating with Letby standing by, taking no action to help or to raise the alarm. She had deliberately dislodged the breathing tube in an attempt to kill her.

“Staff at the unit had to think the unthinkable – that one of their own was deliberately harming and killing babies in their care.

“Letby dislodged the tube a further two times over the following few hours in an attempt to cover her tracks and suggest that the first dislodgment was accidental. These were the actions of a cold-blooded, calculated killer.

“The grief that the family of Baby K have felt is unimaginable. Our thoughts remain with them and all those affected by this case at this time.”

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