Child serial killer Lucy Letby guilty of attempting to murder premature baby

The jury in the retrial of killer nurse Lucy Letby has been sent out to consider its verdict on an allegation that she attempted to murder a baby girl in her care (Cheshire Constabulary/PA) (PA Media)

Killer Lucy Letby has been found guilty of the attempted murder of another baby while working in a neonatal unit at Countess of Chester Hospital.

The nurse, 34, was “caught virtually red-handed” deliberately dislodging the baby girl’s breathing tube by a consultant paediatrician in a nursery room at the unit in February 2016.

The baby, known as Child K, was transferred to a specialist hospital on the same day, where she died three days later - but not because of Letby’s actions, said the Crown Prosecution Service.

On Tuesday afternoon, a jury of six women and six men at Manchester Crown Court found her guilty of attempted murder following a trial.

The verdict comes almost a year after Letby, of Hereford, was convicted by another jury of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.

A verdict on the allegation concerning Child K could not be reached and a retrial was ordered on that single count.

During the retrial,cLetby told the court she did not recall being in nursery at any time during the shift on the day she was accused of attempting to murder the baby girl

She said she did nothing to harm Child K and had not intended to, or tried to, harm any baby in her care as she maintained her innocence.

But the prosecution said in the hours that followed her being caught dislodging the baby girl’s breathing tube by consultant paediatrician Dr Ravi Jayaram, she interfered with replacement tubes for the newborn on two more occasions in a bid to cover her tracks.

On the final time of interfering with the breathing tube, she called for help.

In his closing speech to the jury, prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said: “With one notable exception, the doctors and nurses who cared for (Child K) during her very short life did so to the best of their abilities and used their considerable skill and knowledge to maximise her chances of survival.

“The one exception to that, of course, is sitting in the dock.”

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