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Topics: UK News, News, Crime, Lucy Letby
Rhiannon Ingle
Lucy Letby has been found guilty of the attempted murder of a premature baby.
The 34-year-old was convicted last August of murdering seven babies while she worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit and attempting to murder six other infants – with two attempts on one victim – between June 2015 and June 2016.
On Tuesday (2 July), Letby was convicted by the jury of trying to murder a 'very premature' infant, referred to as Child K, by dislodging her breathing tube in the early hours of February 17 2016.
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The former nurse targeted Child K after the infant was moved from the delivery room to the neo-natal unit shortly after her premature birth.
The youngster, born at 25 weeks’ gestation and weighing just 692g, was said by the prosecution to be the 'epitome of fragility'.
About 90 minutes after her birth, Letby deliberately dislodged Child K’s breathing tube through which she was being ventilated with air and oxygen.
Consultant paediatrician Dr Ravi Jayaram caught her 'virtually red-handed' as he entered the unit’s intensive care room at about 3.45m and he then went on to intervene and resuscitate Child K.
Dr Jayaram told jurors he saw 'no evidence' that she had done anything to help the deteriorating baby as he walked in and saw her standing next to the infant’s incubator.
Letby told the jury of six women and six men she had no recollection of any such event.
She denied she did anything harmful to Child K and added that she had not committed any of the offences she had been convicted of.
Letby also denied the prosecution’s claims that she interfered with the infant’s breathing tube on two more occasions during the same shift to create the impression that Child K was habitually displacing her own tube.
Child K was transferred to a specialist hospital later on February 17 because of her extreme prematurity and died there three days later.
No post-mortem examination was conducted and the cause of death was certified as extreme prematurity and severe respiratory distress syndrome.
During the trial - which began at Manchester Crown Court last October - the prosecution said the 'cold, cruel and relentless' band 5 staff nurse was a 'calculating and devious' opportunist who 'gaslighted' colleagues to cover her 'murderous assaults'.
Sentencing Letby last year, Mr Justice Goss said at the time: "This was a cruel, calculated, and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children, knowing that your actions were causing significant physical suffering and would cause untold mental suffering.
"There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions."
He added: "There is no doubt that you are intelligent and outwardly were a very conscientious, hardworking, knowledgable nurse – which enabled you to harm babies for some time."