The jury is out in the retrial of child killer nurse, Lucy Letby, on a charge of attempted murder of a newborn.
The 34-year-old is accused of targeting Child K in the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal section shortly after her premature delivery.
The jury in the retrial of murdering nurse Lucy Letby has been sent away to contemplate its verdict on the charge that she attempted to murder a baby girl in her care.
Another jury convicted the 34-year-old last August of killing seven newborns and attempting to murder six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal ward between June 2015 and June 2016.
However, a verdict on the allegation against the infant known as Child K could not be reached, so a retrial was ordered on that single count.
Letby is believed to have targeted Child K in the early hours of February 17, 2016, after the newborn was transferred from the delivery room to the neo-natal unit following her premature birth.
The prosecution at Manchester Crown Court claims that Letby purposefully tampered with Child K’s breathing tube, through which she was being ventilated with air and oxygen.
Dr Ravi Jayaram, a consultant paediatrician, is reported to have caught the nurse “virtually red-handed” when he entered the unit’s intensive care room, and then intervened and resuscitated Child K.
Letby informed the jury of six women and six men that she had no knowledge of any such event.
She denied causing any harm to Child K and stated that she did not do any of the crimes for which she has been convicted.
Child K was transported to a specialist hospital on February 17 due to her exceptional preterm. She died three days later, but the prosecution does not blame Letby.
Letby, of Hereford, has denied attempted murder.
A court order forbids the disclosure of the identity of the surviving and deceased children in the case.
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