United Kingdom: Nurse considered worst child killer in country’s history to be retried for attempted murder

The 33-year-old nurse was found guilty in mid-August by the Manchester court (north) of the murder of seven premature newborns and six attempted murders in the hospital where she worked, in 2015 and 2016, which making her the worst child killer in modern British history.

Lucy Letby, who proclaimed her innocence throughout the ten-month trial, was sentenced to irreducible life imprisonment, a very rare sentence in English law.

But the jury failed to reach a verdict on six other attempted murders.

A mother imprisoned for the murders of two newborns in France

On Monday, the prosecution announced a new trial for one of these attempted murders, against a little girl in February 2016. This trial should start on June 10, 2024 and last two to three weeks.

The trial did not shed light on the nurse’s motivations.

Lucy Letby worked in the intensive care unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in the northwest of England.

She notably injected air intravenously into premature newborns, used their nasogastric tubes to send air or an overdose of milk into their stomachs.

The 30-year-old attacked babies after their parents left, when the nurse in charge moved away, or at night when she was alone. She then sometimes joined collective efforts to save newborns, even assisting desperate parents.

Transferred in June 2016 to an administrative service, arrested for the first time in 2018, then in 2019, Lucy Letby was incarcerated in November 2020.