The former pediatric nurse, Lucy Letby (34), was found guilty for a second time of attempting to murder an infant, solidifying her reputation as Britain’s most notorious serial child killer in recent history. Letby had previously been sentenced to life imprisonment without the scope of parole in August of last year, when she was convicted of taking the lives of seven infants and attempted murder of six more while serving at the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, Northern England, from June 2015 to June 2016.
In the following month, Letby faced trial again for her suspected role in the attempted homicide of a baby girl, referred to as Child K, a charge that the initial jury failed to conclude on.
Prosecution lead, Nick Johnson, informed Manchester Crown Court that the premature baby, born at 25 weeks in February 2016 at the hospital, had been hooked up to a ventilator and heart rate as well as oxygen monitoring devices. However, roughly an hour post-delivery, in the absence of other staff members, senior doctor Ravi Jayaram discovered the baby’s breathing tube had been dislodged and the alarms that ought to have triggered were disarmed, with Letby merely standing by.
Johnson further added that Letby tampered with the breathing tube twice more that night to simulate a specific issue with the child. Notwithstanding the successful conviction, Child K’s family stated, “The drive for justice does not help in alleviating the pain, anger, and trauma we have had to endure.”
Child K lost her life in another hospital three days later, although the prosecution clarified that this was not connected to the charges against Letby. Defending her plea, Letby maintained her innocence, denying causing harm to any child entrusted in her care and claimed to have no memory of the night in question. Her defence solicitor argued that there was insufficient evidence to establish her guilt.
Letby was initially convicted for murdering five infant boys and two infant girls, through methods such as insulin or air injections, or forceful milk feeding. This case rattled the UK, prompting the government to launch an investigation into why her alarming behaviour wasn’t noticed by hospital management. In addition, the authorities stated that further probes were underway to determine if other victims existed in the hospitals where Letby had worked in the past.
Interestingly, some individuals on social media have shaped Letby into a high-profile case, viewing her as a victim of a severe judicial blunder. Prior to her recent trial, the New Yorker magazine published an article challenging the evidence against her. Despite this, her attempt to challenge her conviction was dismissed by England’s court of appeal in May. This was largely based on the grounds that the prosecution’s expert witness evidence was defective.
Letby had claimed that the jury was incorrectly informed that they didn’t need to be certain about her alleged murder or attempted murder methods. However, Judge Victoria Sharp made a public judgment on Tuesday, stating that it was not compulsory for the prosecution to establish the exact way Letby was said to have conducted herself.