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British nurse Lucy Letby, who was already sentenced to life in prison for the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six others, was found guilty on Tuesday of trying to kill a premature baby girl.
The newborn was less than two hours old when Letby, 34, tampered with the baby’s breathing tube in February 2016, threatening the newborn’s life, a British court heard.
The baby, identified in the trial only as ‘Baby K,’ was born 15 weeks premature and weighed only 692 grams (1.52 pounds), the BBC reported.
Letby’s guilty verdict came as part of a retrial in the Manchester Crown Court, a year after a jury could not reach a verdict on allegations connected with Baby K.
The retrial lasted three weeks. At its conclusion, the jury deliberated for three-and-a-half hours before delivering a guilty verdict.
The jury agreed Letby attempted to dislodge Baby K’s breathing tube. Prosecutors in the retrial said Letby stood by the newborn’s incubator and did not intervene as the baby’s blood oxygen levels dropped.
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A consultant pediatrician, Dr. Ravi Jayaram, intervened and resuscitated Baby K. He told the court there was “no evidence” Letby made any attempt to save the newborn, including calling for help. The baby’s alarm, which monitored heart rate and oxygen levels, was seemingly silenced.
Prosecutor Nick Johnson said Letby was caught by Jayaram “virtually red-handed.”
After Jayaram intervened, Letby twice more dislodged Baby K’s breathing tube to try and cover her tracks and suggest the first dislodgment was accidental or caused by the baby’s own doing, Johnson said.
Baby K died three days after the incident, following a transfer to a specialist hospital. The newborn’s cause of death was found to be extreme prematurity and severe respiratory distress syndrome.
In a statement following Letby’s guilty verdict, the family of Baby K lamented the pain and anguish they and their daughter had to experience.
“Today, justice has been served. But it does not take away the extreme hurt, anger and distress that we have all had to experienced,” the statement reads. “To lose a baby is a heartbreaking experience that no parent should ever go through, but to lose a baby and then learn of the harm that was inflicted in these circumstances is unimaginable.”
The family said they will never understand why Letby attempted to murder their newborn.
This undated handout issued by Cheshire Constabulary shows former nurse Lucy Letby.
During her trial last year, jurors heard how Letby targeted her victims during her employment as a neonatal nurse at Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, England from June 2015 to June 2016.
Letby waited until infants were left alone in hospital before attacking, witnesses testified. She killed seven infants by injecting air into their stomachs and bloodstreams. Letby also made attempts on the lives of six other newborns by lacing feeding bags with insulin, overfeeding and through physical assault.
She has never admitted any wrongdoing and has maintained her innocence throughout her trial and retrial. Letby is expected to receive her sentence for the attempted murder of Baby K on July 5.
Letby was removed from front-line neonatal duties in late June of 2016. She was arrested at her home in July 2018.
Last year, Letby was handed a whole-life order, the most severe sentence possible under British law, which will ensure she remains in prison until her death. There is no possibility of parole. She was the fourth-ever woman to be given this sentence in the U.K.
An appeal made by Letby’s lawyers was denied in May.
Before her sentencing in 2023, a Manchester Crown Court judge said Letby had “no remorse” and committed her crimes with a “deep malevolence bordering on sadism.”
An investigation into how Letby was able to commit the crimes at Countess of Chester Hospital was launched in October 2023. A public inquiry is also set to begin in September, with officials probing how Letby remained on the neonatal nursing staff despite senior doctors expressing concern about her to hospital administration.
