A UK jury has found former nurse Lucy Letby guilty of attempting to murder another baby in her care, adding to her notorious record as Britain’s most prolific child serial killer.
“Lucy Letby, 34, faced a retrial at Manchester Crown Court for the attempted murder of the baby girl, referred to in court as Child K, at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England in 2016,” the prosecution stated.
Jerrymusa.com reports that Jurors at her original trial last year failed to reach a verdict on that charge. However, the jury hearing the case this time took just over three hours to reach their unanimous guilty verdict.
Letby’s Law Suit
Letby was accused of displacing the breathing tube of a premature baby, referred to as Child K, at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2016.
“The prosecution detailed how the 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,” the prosecution said.
The baby died three days later at a specialist hospital, but the prosecution did not allege that Letby caused the death.
The parents of Child K welcomed the verdict, saying “justice has been served” but expressed ongoing hurt, anger, and distress.
“But this justice will not take away the extreme hurt, anger and distress that we have all had to experience,” they added. “It also does not provide us with an explanation of why these crimes have taken place.”
Letby’s convictions have sparked a public inquiry into events at the hospital’s neo-natal unit, set to begin in September, and a corporate manslaughter investigation into the hospital’s senior leadership and decision-making.
“At this stage we are not investigating any individuals in relation to gross negligence manslaughter,” Detective Superintendent Simon Blackwell said.
The police are also reviewing 4,000 baby admissions during Letby’s tenure at two hospitals to identify any potential medical concerns.