Serial Killer Nurse Lucy Letby Found Guilty of Attempted Murder
Lucy Letby, a 34-year-old nurse previously convicted of murdering seven babies, has been found guilty of the attempted murder of an extremely premature baby, just two hours after she was born.
Letby was on trial at Manchester Crown Court for the attempted murder of a baby girl, known as Child K, after a jury in her original trial was unable to reach a verdict on this charge. Last August, she was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others.
The prosecution argued that Letby had displaced the baby’s breathing tube and was caught “virtually red-handed” when a doctor entered the room. Consultant paediatrician Dr. Ravi Jayaram testified that he saw Letby standing beside the infant’s incubator, doing nothing as her blood oxygen levels fell to life-threatening levels, while an alarm that should have been sounding was silent.
After Baby K recovered, her tube was displaced two more times that night. The prosecution alleged that Letby tried to make it appear as if the infant habitually displaced the tube herself. The baby, born at 25 weeks’ gestation, was later transferred to a specialist neonatal unit but died three days later. Letby’s actions were not alleged to have caused her death.
The parents of Child K gasped and cried when the verdict was read out, after the jury deliberated for just three-and-a-half hours. Letby showed no emotion in the dock. Sentencing is scheduled for Friday at 10:30 am. Senior Crown Prosecutor Nicola Wyn Williams, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire’s Complex Casework Unit, stated that 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.”
“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,” Williams said. “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 has felt is unimaginable. Our thoughts remain with them and all those affected by this case at this time.”
Dr. Nigel Scawn, medical director at the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, expressed deep regret: “Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of Baby K. We are extremely sorry that these awful crimes happened at our hospital. Since Lucy Letby worked at our hospital, we have made significant changes to our services and remain committed to providing high quality, safe care to our local communities. We want to acknowledge the impact this continues to have on everyone involved in this case and restate our commitment to do everything we can to help families get the answers they deserve.”
Dr. Scawn also thanked “the unwavering cooperation and professionalism of our staff, some of whom returned to court to repeat evidence and relive events.”