Lucy Letby is back in court this week seeking permission to appeal against her conviction for the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six others.
The former neonatal nurse was found guilty of committing the offences at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. She was first arrested in 2018 and convicted last year after one of the longest trials in British legal history.
Dubbed the UK’s “most prolific baby killer”, Letby was sentenced to 14 whole life terms, meaning she is ineligible for parole, although The Sun reported in January that the Surrey prison in which she is being housed is “really no different to living in a hotel”.
What is the basis of her appeal?
Letby, represented by Ben Myers KC, first applied for leave to appeal against her convictions shortly after her original 10-month trial ended in August 2023, but was refused permission by a single judge.
Letby is now asking three senior judges at a further hearing at the Court of Appeal in London this week. Her legal team will say there are four grounds of appeal and that the judge at her original trial wrongly refused applications made during the case.
It has been reported that she appeared via video link on Monday from Bronzefield prison in Surrey, but information related to the appeal hearing at this stage is limited. This is because Letby is due to face a retrial in June on one count of attempted murder and so the media is not permitted to publish details “to avoid the risk of prejudicing jurors”, said The Guardian.
What will happen next?
The appeal court hearing is due to sit again on Tuesday and Thursday this week. If the three judges decline to give permission “it will mark the end of the appeal process for Letby”, said Sky News.
The 34-year-old former nurse faces a retrial on one count of attempted murder of a baby girl, known as Child K, at Manchester Crown Court from 10 June. The jury in Letby’s trial in Manchester last year were unable to reach verdicts on six counts of attempted murder in relation to five children. ITV News reported that a court order “prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children who were the subject of the allegations”.
Letby was struck off the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register in a fitness to practice hearing in December, the Nursing Times reported. At the NMC hearing, Letby “maintained her innocence and indicated she sought an appeal”.
Now detectives are probing Letby’s “entire career”, said The Sun, including her placement at Liverpool Women’s Hospital. “More families have been told that their babies could have been killed by the evil nurse,” said the paper.
Following an outcry about how Letby was able to carry on undetected for so long, a public inquiry into events at the Countess of Chester Hospital is also under way. Led by Lady Justice Thirlwall, herself a Court of Appeals judge, the inquiry’s first hearings are expected to begin in the autumn.
As with inquiries into previous healthcare killers like Harold Shipman, the Letby case could lead to “big changes in the way NHS staff are vetted and scrutinised”, said The Spectator‘s Isabel Hardman.
Convicted former nurse’s legal team claims judge at original trial wrongly refused her applications
