Convicted baby killer Lucy Letby was caught “virtually red-handed” while trying to murder a newborn baby at the Countess of Chester Hospital, a jury heard today.
Letby, 34, was convicted in August last year of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six other babies at the Countess of Chester hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
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.
In the same court, the former nurse is being retried on one of those charges: the allegation that she attempted to murder a girl, known as Child K, in February 2016.
Ravi Jayaram, senior pediatrician at the neonatal unit, entered the high-dependency nursery 1 and saw Letby alone in the room and standing next to Baby K’s incubator.
The baby’s saturation levels were dropping to a critical level but the alarm that should have alerted the staff was not sounding.
Nick Johnson KC, prosecuting, told a jury at Manchester Crown Court: “We say Dr Jayaram caught Lucy Letby practically red-handed.”
Listen to The Mail’s coverage of The Lucy Letby Trial:
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.
He said the attempt on the baby’s life occurred just hours after his “very premature” birth in the early hours of February 17, 2016.
At the time Baby K collapsed, there were only two nurses covering the unit’s four nurseries: Letby and one of her colleagues, Sophie Ellis.
Dr. Jayaram was distracted while making a call to arrange for the baby’s transfer to a higher-level hospital, while two nurses briefly left the unit. One of them, Joanne Williams, who was Baby K’s designated nurse, had gone to see the baby’s mother.
“The charge we make is very simple,” Mr. Johnson said. ‘While Nurse Williams was outside Nursery 1, Lucy Letby was with baby K. She was there alone and K collapsed.
‘That’s what Dr Jayaram saw when he walked in, after speaking to the transport team. The ventilator was breathing for Baby K and she was connected to another machine that monitored her heart rate and saturations, which were set at predetermined levels.
“If there had been a problem, alarm bells would have gone off, but that wasn’t the case. The reason was that someone had disabled them.
‘So when Dr Jayaram entered the nursery he saw Lucy Letby standing next to K. The baby’s saturation levels were dropping but the alarm was not going off. Not only that, but Lucy Letby wasn’t doing anything.
‘We say that in those circumstances the only reasonable thing a nurse could have done was to call for help and/or use the Neopuff to breathe for the child.
‘The reason it desaturated was because the ET tube had become displaced. “It can be taken as evidence that it was Lucy Letby, the convicted murderer, who had moved the tube.”
He added: ‘This event was not the only time Baby K became desaturated and displaced her tube in that shift. It happened two more times.’
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.
The jury was told today that Letby’s conviction for the murder of seven babies is an “important piece of evidence” in deciding whether he tried to kill another baby.
Nick Johnson KC, prosecuting, told the jury of six men and six women: “As your honor told you yesterday, and most of you already know, about a year ago there was a very long trial in which she was found guilty of seven murders and six attempted murders.
‘That makes 13 children. This is a baby who turns 14 years old.’
He added: “This all happened while Lucy Letby was working as a nurse in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester. Those other cases I have mentioned do have relevance in this case.”
The prosecutor suggested that the relevance of those cases was that it would help them decide the case before them.
“Simply put, we submit that her status as a multiple murderer and attempted multiple murderer is important evidence to consider when deciding whether you are certain that you attempted to murder Baby K.”
Johnson said the convictions gave the jury significant evidence about Letby’s intent regarding Baby K.
The jury was shown a series of documents including a review schedule of the neonatal unit, a floor plan of the unit and the location of each baby at the start and end of particular shifts.
The allegation is that Letby attempted to murder Baby K on February 17, 2016.
Letby was the designated nurse for two babies in nursery 2 at the time. Baby K was in daycare 1 and it was the events that occurred there that raised certain questions.
Jurors were given iPads so they can access a variety of court documents. They were shown a video tutorial showing each of the unit’s four rooms.
Mr. Johnson told them that what the lawyers in the case told them “was not the evidence.” They were simply suggesting what they considered important evidence to consider and identify “what the battle lines are.”
Johnson told the jury that at the time Letby had murdered five children and attempted to murder three more. He had twice attempted to assassinate one of the latter group.
He read the names of the victims and the dates they were murdered. The first was a baby on June 8, 2015, the second, another boy, on June 14. Other murders followed on June 22, August 4, and October 23.
He had also attempted to murder a girl on June 9 and 10, a boy on August 15 and another girl on September 21.
He committed the murders and attempted murders between June 2015 and June 2016 at the Countess of Chester Hospital (pictured), where he worked.
Letby, from Hereford, watched from the dock at Manchester Crown Court (pictured) as the opening speech was delivered.
“After what we allege she did to Baby K, Lucy Letby murdered two of three triplets on consecutive days, June 23 and 24, 2016.
“By then, he had also attempted to murder two other children, a set of twins on April 9 and finally a baby on June 3.
‘That will be part of the agreed facts.’
The prosecutor said Letby had conducted frequent searches on Facebook for some of the babies’ relatives.
He said Baby K’s mother was already in labor when she arrived at Countess of Chester Hospital shortly before 10am on February 15.
Her baby was “very, very premature” at 24 weeks and six days gestation.
Medical staff wanted to transfer her to a higher level hospital, but the nearest available unit was in Preston. Rather than risk the baby being born in the back of an ambulance, she made the decision for her mother to remain in Chester.
The baby was born at 2:12 in the morning on February 17. At first she did “remarkably well for a girl of her immaturity.”
Their ‘Apgar’ scores were 4 out of 10 at five minutes, 9 out of 10 at five minutes, and 9 out of 10 at 10 minutes.
Babies with a score of seven years or older are considered in good condition.
It is known that at the time of the birth, Letby was with a nursing colleague, Joanne Williams, in nursery 2. Records showed that she had signed up to receive the baby’s medication.
Letby, from Hereford, watched from the dock as the opening speech was delivered.
She has always denied harming any children in her care and maintains her innocence.
The trial continues.