Monday, June 10, 2024 -Former neonatal nurse, Lucy Letby will today go on trial over an allegation that she attempted to murder a baby girl at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
The 34-year-old, from Hereford, was
convicted in August last year of the murders of seven babies and the
attempted murders of six other infants at the hospital in Cheshire between June
2015 and June 2016.
The jury at Letby's 10-month trial at
Manchester Crown Court was unable to reach verdicts on six counts of attempted
murder in relation to five children.
Today, at the same court, Letby will be
retried over one of those counts - an allegation that she tried to murder a
baby girl, known as Child K, in February 2016.
The retrial comes after Letby lost her bid
to appeal her convictions last month.
Three of the country's most senior judges
ruled the former nurse will not be allowed to challenge the guilty verdicts of
the jury at Manchester Crown Court.
In April, her lawyers had applied for leave
to appeal, arguing that she wanted to challenge her convictions on four
grounds. Each involved arguments that Mr Justice Goss, the trial judge, wrongly
refused legal applications made during the case.
But on May 24, Dame Victoria Sharp said
Letby's application had been refused on all four grounds.
In a short hearing, at London's Court of
Appeal, Dame Sharp said their judgement was being reserved to a later date.
'Lucy Letby…put forward four grounds of
appeal, each of which involved a position that the trial judge wrongly refused
applications that she made during her trial,' the judge said. 'This court has,
having heard that application, directed to refuse leave to appeal on all
grounds and refused all associated applications.'
The full reasons for the judges' decision
were not made public and the full details of the appeal hearings, which took
place over three days in April, also cannot be reported for legal reasons.
Letby was convicted of seven counts of
murder and seven of attempted murder – one of the babies she tried to kill
twice.
Mr Justice Goss sentenced Letby to 14 whole
life tariffs for each guilty count, meaning she has no prospect of parole.
Letby applied for leave to appeal against
her convictions soon after the guilty verdicts last year.
She lost the first stage of the process, in
which a single judge reviewed her arguments as a paper exercise.
Letby had the right to a second stage, which
involved renewing her application before Dame Sharp, Lord Justice Holroyde, and
Mrs Justice Lambert at the public hearings. But their refusal of her
application signalled the end of the appeal process for her.
Letby has always denied harming any child in
her care and maintains her innocence.
She was cleared of two counts of attempted murder at the original trial.
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