Lucy Letby’s bid to appeal a conviction for the attempted murder of a baby girl has been dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
The convicted child serial killer asked senior judges for approval to challenge her most recent conviction for trying to kill the newborn, known as Child K, following a retrial in July, for which she was sentenced to a 15th whole life order.
Lawyers for the former nurse told the Court of Appeal today that the attempted murder charge should have been “stayed” as an “abuse of process” due to “overwhelming and irremediable prejudice” caused by media coverage of her first trial, and that the retrial should not have gone ahead.
But Lord Justice William Davis, sitting with Lord Justice Jeremy Baker and Mrs Justice McGowan, said at the start of their ruling that they would “refuse permission” for Letby to challenge the conviction.
The former nurse, who watched the hearing via a video link from HMP Bronzefield wearing a green dress, showed no reaction as the judges gave their ruling.
Letby, 34, was previously sentenced to 14 whole life orders for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others, with two attempts on one child.
Her bid to appeal against those convictions was dismissed in May.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case of Child K during her first trial which ran from October 2022 to August 2023.
But a second jury took just three-and-a-half hours to convict her at the July retrial at Manchester Crown Court.
Letby’s offences occurred at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit, where she worked as a nurse, between June 2015 and June 2016.
Jurors were told that Letby targeted the “very premature” infant in the early hours of 17 February 2016 by dislodging Child K’s breathing tube after she was moved from the delivery room to the unit’s intensive care unit.
The court previously heard that she was caught “virtually red-handed” by consultant paediatrician Dr Ravi Jayaram, who intervened and resuscitated Child K.
Dr Jayaram told jurors he saw “no evidence” that she had done anything to help the deteriorating baby but Letby said she had no recollection of the event.
Child K had a planned transfer to a specialist hospital later that day because of her extreme prematurity and died three days later.
Letby’s latest appeal comes as a public inquiry into the events surrounding the nurse’s crimes, chaired by judge Lady Justice Thirlwall, continues at Liverpool Town Hall.
It began last month and is due to finish in early 2025, with the judge expecting to publish her findings by late autumn that year.
