UK baby killer Lucy Letby denies attempted murder at retrial

AFP | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia  

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Convicted UK baby killer Lucy Letby said yesterday she has never intended or tried to harm any baby in her care, when giving evidence at a retrial for attempted murder.

The former nurse, 34, is accused of trying to kill a baby girl, referred to in court as Child K, at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit on February 17, 2016.

Manchester Crown Court in northwest England has been told that Letby was convicted at a trial that ended last year of murdering seven babies at the unit and the attempted murders of six more between 2015 and 2016.

Reporting restrictions prevent publication of the identities of the surviving and dead children in the case.

The jury has been told that the panel in the first trial could not reach a verdict on the attempted murder charge relating to Baby K, leading to the retrial. Appearing in the witness box on Monday, Letby responded “no” when asked by her lawyer if she had attempted to murder or harm Child K, or whether she had ever intended to hurt or harm any baby in her care.

The prosecution alleges that a consultant paediatrician walked into the unit’s intensive care nursery room and saw Letby standing next to the incubator “doing nothing”, as the infant’s blood oxygen levels dipped.

Prosecutor Nick Johnson alleged that Letby had displaced the tiny infant’s breathing tube.

Child K was transferred to a specialist hospital later the same day because she was born extremely prematurely. She died there three days later, although the prosecution does not allege Letby caused her death. Letby, from Hereford, western England, denies one count of attempted murder.