Lucy Letby sentenced to another whole life order for attempted murder of baby
Killer nurse Lucy Letby has been sentenced to another whole life order for the attempted murder of an extremely premature baby.
The 34-year-old was found guilty by a jury earlier this week following a retrial at Manchester Crown Court.
She was already serving 14 whole life orders after being convicted last year of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
However, the jury in her original trial had been unable to reach a verdict on the charge that she also attempted to murder a premature baby, known as Child K, in February 2016.
During the retrial, the prosecution said Letby had displaced the baby's breathing tube and had been caught "virtually red-handed" when a doctor walked into the room.
After the baby recovered, her tube was displaced two more times that night, the prosecution said, alleging Letby had tried to make it appear like the infant habitually displaced it herself.
Read more:
Who is Lucy Letby?
How the police caught Letby
Will she ever be freed from prison?
The baby, who had been born at 25 weeks gestation, was transferred to a specialist neo-natal unit but died three days later.
Letby's actions were not alleged to have caused her death.
However, Senior Crown Prosecutor Nicola Wyn Williams, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire's Complex Casework Unit, said after the verdict that Letby carried out the actions of a "cold-blooded, calculated killer" when she tried to murder Baby K.
Ms Williams said: "Our case included direct evidence from a doctor who walked into the nursery to find a very premature baby desaturating with Letby standing by, taking no action to help or to raise the alarm. She had deliberately dislodged the breathing tube in an attempt to kill her.
"Staff at the unit had to think the unthinkable - that one of their own was deliberately harming and killing babies in their care.
"Letby dislodged the tube a further two times over the following few hours in an attempt to cover her tracks and suggest that the first dislodgment was accidental. These were the actions of a cold-blooded, calculated killer."
Letby denied during the retrial that she had ever intended or tried to harm any baby in her care.
She said she had no recollection of the incident with Baby K but said: "I know I did nothing to interfere."
Letby was asked about Facebook searches she made for Baby K's surname more than two years after she left the neonatal unit.
She had also searched for the parents of other babies she was convicted of murdering or attempting to murder.
Letby denied having a fascination with the families or looking for signs of their grief.
She told the jury: "I'm not guilty of what I've been found guilty of."
The parents of Baby K gasped and then cried when the verdict was read out on Tuesday after the jury deliberated for just three-and-a-half hours.
Letby showed no emotion in the dock.
A public inquiry into events at the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit will begin to hear evidence in September.
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