Lucy Letby, the serial killer nurse charged with murdering seven babies and the attempted murder of six is up for a retrial.
Letby carried out the murders during her time at the Countess of Chester hospital between June 2015 and 2016. The ongoing suspicion as to why so many infants were suddenly passing at the hospital on the neonatal ward, she worked on stopped as soon as Letby was removed from the ward. This only took place in June 2016, after the deaths of two triplet boys and the collapse of another boy across three consecutive days. Letby was moved to continue clerical work that September and registered a grievance procedure, which was later resolved in her favour. The hospital has been criticised for continuing to ignore suspicions and warnings from colleagues about Letby that could have prevented many attacks. Alison Kelly, Nursing Director of the hospital, has been suspended from her role due to the handling from management.
Consultant Ravi Jayaram who helped expose the crimes of Lucy Letby to management has stated “I’m not a hero, I was just doing my job”. He repetitively warned senior members of the hospital management and was frequently dismissed. During these concerns he was at one point told to apologise to Letby for raising concerns about her conduct. Chief Executive Tony Chambers told consultants in 2017 to ‘draw a line’ under their suspicions and that failure to do so would result in ‘consequences’.
On 21st August 2023, Letby was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court. Judge Mr Goss described her crimes as “cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder,” where Letby was accused of injecting the infants with air, poisoning them with insulin and overfeeding them. Despite denying the offences, Letby was served a whole life sentence for her crimes which makes her the most prolific child killer in recent British history. Alongside the charges, the jury could not reach a verdict on the attempted murder of three baby girls named as Child H, J and K and two baby boys named Child N and Q. She was cleared for the attempted murder of another two babies.
However, Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC reveals that Letby is now being retrialed for the attempted murder of a baby girl, named as Child K, born in February 2016. The retrial likely won’t take place until 10th June 2024 due to a backlog of cases in courts, and the trial is estimated to take two to three weeks. Families were left disappointed with the news that they will not be retrialing Letby for the attempted murder of the other five children that they failed to reach a verdict on.
Regarding the retrial, Lawyer, Tamlin Bolton said: ‘We are disappointed with the CPS decision. We believe that the families of the further alleged victims still have questions that are unanswered, they deserve to know what happened to their children.
‘Those families will need to pursue other channels to get the answers, through both a civil case against the Trust, and to be included as part of the inquiry.’
Additionally, Police are now investigating the deaths of two babies that died during her placement training at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, alongside a review of over 4,000 babies that were under Letby’s care during her career. It is likely that new information will arise in investigation before the retrial begins, hopefully bringing families more answers.