A British jury on Tuesday convicted child serial killer Lucy Letby of attempting to murder another baby girl in the neonatal unit of the hospital where she worked.
The incident comes almost a year after a separate jury convicted the former nurse of murdering seven newborn babies and attempting to murder six others, making her Britain’s most notorious child serial killer in modern history.
Letby (34) had faced a retrial at Manchester Crown Court for the attempted murder of the girl, referred to in the court as Child, at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England in 2016.
Jurors at his original trial last year failed to reach a verdict on that charge.
However, this time the jury hearing the case took more than three hours to reach a unanimous guilty verdict.
Letby, who is already serving a life sentence and had his appeal rejected earlier this year, will be sentenced for the latest offence on Friday.
During the retrial, jurors heard the former nurse was “virtually caught red-handed” by a senior consultant as she was removing Child K’s breathing tube.
The prosecution detailed how a consultant paediatrician arrived at the unit’s intensive care unit and found Letby standing beside the incubator and “doing nothing” while the baby’s blood oxygen levels dropped.
The jury was also told of Letby’s conviction in August last year for other murders and attempted murders between 2015 and 2016.
The identities of the living and dead children in the case cannot be published because of reporting restrictions.
– Ongoing investigation –
Appearing on the witness stand last month, Letby denied trying to kill or harm the boy or any other child in her care.
Baby girl ‘K’ was transferred to a specialist hospital later the same day as she was born prematurely.
She died three days later. Prosecutors have not alleged that Letby caused her death.
The little girl’s parents thanked the jury and said “justice has been done.” They added, “But that justice cannot take away the immense pain, anger and suffering we have all experienced.”
“It also does not explain why these crimes occurred,” the statement said.
Letby, of Hereford in western England, was arrested and charged in 2020 after the deaths of several babies in the hospital’s neonatal unit.
At her first trial, prosecutors said she attacked her vulnerable prematurely born victims, often during night shifts, by either injecting them with air or poisoning them with overfeeding or insulin.
A public inquiry into events at the hospital unit will begin in September, where evidence will be presented.
Cheshire Police said on Tuesday that a “complex and sensitive” corporate manslaughter investigation into the hospital – which was launched following Letby’s conviction last year – was running alongside the original investigation into the former nurse.
Detective Superintendent Simon Blackwell said it was “looking at areas including senior leadership and decision-making to determine whether a criminal incident occurred.”
“At this time we are not investigating anyone in relation to gross negligence manslaughter,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ongoing investigation into Letby also includes a review of 4,000 infant admissions over a four-year period during her work at Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes said only cases “that highlight a medical concern” would be reviewed further.
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