Convicted baby killer Lucy Letby returned to court today as a new trial heard how the nurse allegedly tried to murder a baby girl just hours after her birth by dislodging her breathing tube.
Prosecutors put their case to jurors at Manchester Crown Court, where they say Letby, 34, was “practically caught red-handed” trying to kill the newborn, known as Baby K, in February 2016.
The jury in Letby’s 10-month trial at the same court last August was unable to reach verdicts on six counts of attempted murder involving five children. She is being retried on one of those charges.
Today in the The Daily Mail’s award-winning podcastLucy Letby’s retrial looks at the prosecution’s opening statement.
Nick Johnson KC, for The Crown, told the jury how the neonatal unit’s senior pediatrician, Dr Ravi Jayaram, walked in and saw the nurse alone in the room and standing next to Baby K’s incubator.
Letby, 34, was convicted in August last year of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six other infants.
The jury in 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. She is being retried on one of those charges.
Today on the Daily Mail’s award-winning podcast, The Retrial of Lucy Letby, the prosecution’s opening statement is discussed.
“Baby K was connected to a ventilator that breathed for her, she was also connected to another machine that monitored her heart rate and her saturations, that is, her blood oxygen levels,” he said.
‘The reason the alarms didn’t sound was because someone had disabled them.
‘When Dr. Jayaram entered the nursery he saw that Lucy Letby was standing next to Baby K. Baby K’s blood oxygen, her saturations, were dropping but the alarm was not going off, and not only that, but Lucy Letby I was not doing anything.
‘We say that, in those circumstances, the only reasonable thing a nurse could have done was to call for help or use the neo-puff to breathe for the child.
‘The reason Baby K was desaturating was that her endotracheal tube had become displaced and we suggest that the fact that Lucy Letby was not doing anything, and the fact that the alarms were not going off, is evidence of which can be conclude that it was Lucy Letby. , the convicted murderer, who had displaced the tube.
“In this case it’s a very simple factual question: If that tube was lost, how did it happen?”
Baby K later died after being transferred to another hospital. Johnson told the jury: It was not suggested that Letby’s actions had caused her death, but rather that she had tried to kill her.
He committed the murders and attempted murders between June 2015 and June 2016 at the Countess of Chester Hospital (pictured), where he worked.
He podcast Also hear how Letby broke down in tears as her lawyer, Ben Myers KC, explained why she says she is innocent and has been unfairly blamed for moving the tube.
“She doesn’t agree that she interfered with the tube at any time or that she did anything that would harm Baby K, so ultimately this case comes down to a pretty strict question of whether you can be sure that Baby K’s desaturation around 3:45 a.m. was “Because Lucy Letby interfered with her breathing tube and did nothing to help, or not, and that allegation depends fundamentally on Dr. Jayaram’s evidence,” he said. Mr. Myers.
“If her account is not truthful or accurate, then there is no secure basis for convicting Lucy Letby on this charge.”
Listen to Lucy Letby’s retrial hereas well as all the places you normally get your podcasts.