British nurse on trial for murder of seven babies

A British nurse named Lucy Letby is currently on trial for the murder of 7 babies and the attempted murder of 10 more.

Letby, who worked at the Countess of Chester hospital, is accused of murdering five baby boys and two girls. She earlier pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Opening her trial at Manchester Crown Court, prosecutor Nick Johnson said that from 2015, the hospital saw a significant rise in the number of babies who were dying or suffering “serious catastrophic collapses.”

He said that “unlike many other hospitals, within the neo-natal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, a poisoner was at work”.

“Babies who had not been unstable at all suddenly deteriorated. Sometimes babies who had been sick, but then been on the mend suddenly deteriorated for no apparent reason,” he told the jury.

Johnson said she was a “constant malevolent presence” in the hospital’s neonatal unit.

He said that when doctors couldn’t find a cause, police were called in and conducted a review that suggested someone in the neonatal unit poisoned two infant boys with insulin two days after they were born.

Medics also noted that babies who had collapsed “did not respond to appropriate and timely resuscitation” and that others “collapsed dramatically, but then, equally dramatically, recovered”.

“Having searched for a cause, which they were unable to find, the consultants noticed that the inexplicable collapses and deaths did have one common denominator,” he said.

“The presence of one of the neonatal nurses and that nurse was Lucy Letby.”

Mr Johnson alleged that in some cases, Ms Letby tried to kill the same baby more than once.

“Sometimes a baby that she succeeded in killing she did not manage to kill the first time she tried, or even the second time, and in one case even the third time.”

Family members of some of Letby’s alleged victims sat in the courtroom, while Letby’s parents were also present.

The trial is expected to last weeks, if not months.