Lucy Letby has been found GUILTY of murdering and attempting to murder premature babies. Following a 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court, the 33-year-old former neonatal nurse was convicted of seven murder and attempting to murder six others in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital today (August 18).
She was not present as the verdicts were delivered. Prosecutors alleged she was a ‘constant malevolent’ presence at all the deaths and collapses between June 2015 and June 2016. Join our WhatsAp p Top Stories and Breaking News group by clicking this link. Opening the case in October last year, prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said: “Prior to January 2015, the statistics in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester for the mortality of the babies in the UK were comparable to other like units,” Mr Johnson KC said. “However, over the next 18 months or so, there was a significant rise in the number of babies who were dying and in the number of serious catastrophic collapses.
These rises were noticed by the consultants working at the Countess of Chester and they searched for a cause.” Prosecutors said the concern was due to the fact that the babies had deteriorated ‘unexpectedly’.
Some of the babies who ‘seriously collapsed’ didn’t respond to ‘appropriate and timely resuscitation’, others ‘collapsed dramatically and then equally dramatically recovered’, and some who collapsed and recovered ‘defied normal experience’ of the treating doctors.