Killer nurse Lucy Letby sentenced to another whole life order for attempted murder of baby

Letby had been convicted by another jury last August of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.

She is already serving 14 whole-life orders for each of those offences committed in the neonatal unit during that period.

A retrial was ordered regarding an allegation pertaining to Child K after the first jury could not reach a verdict. However, a second jury took just three-and-a-half hours to convict Letby.

The 34-year-old was caught "virtually red-handed" dislodging the "very premature" baby girl's breathing tube which was being ventilated with air and oxygen on February 17, 2016.

Consultant paediatrician Dr Ravi Jayaram spotted this whilst entering the nursery and intervened to save the child. He told the jury that he saw "no evidence" that Letby had done anything to help the poorly baby, with the 34-year-old simply standing next to the incubator.

The baby, weighing just 682g, recovered despite her tube being displaced two more times during the night.

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However, three days later, she died after being transferred to a specialist unit.

Letby denied that the event had taken place and told jurors that she had no recollection of it.

She also opposed the prosecution’s claims that she purposefully interfered with the infant’s breathing tube, instead suggesting it was done accidentally.

The 34-year-old was initially charged with the murder of the infant but the charge was dropped in June 2022 as the prosecution offered no evidence.

However, Senior Crown Prosecutor Nicola Wyn Williams, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire's Complex Casework Unit, said after the verdict that Letby carried out the actions of a "cold-blooded, calculated killer" when she tried to murder the infant.

Williams said in a statement following the judgment: "This has been an incredibly difficult, complex and disturbing case. A trained nurse tasked with looking after the most vulnerable babies used her craft and her skills to become a killer.

"She stood by as the parents of the babies she had killed or tried to kill, grieved and pretended to try and comfort them, all along knowing she was the person responsible.

"The savagery of her actions has been difficult for the prosecution team to comprehend and has devastated the lives of the families of these babies.

"We still have no idea why she committed these crimes."

The public inquiry into how Letby was able to commit her crimes on the unit is set to begin at Liverpool Town Hall on September 10.