Lucy Letby to face retrial over attempted baby murder charge

Lucy Letby
Lucy Letby will face a retrial

Lucy Letby will face a retrial next year on one charge of attempting to kill a baby girl in February 2016.

Letby was sentenced to a whole life order last month after being found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit in 2015 and 2016.

However, the jury was unable to reach verdicts on six counts of attempted murder in relation to five children.

At Manchester Crown Court on Monday, Letby, appearing via videolink from HMP New Hall, near Wakefield, was told she must stand trial again next year in relation to the attempted murder of Baby K.

Wearing a blue zip-up jumper, Letby, who had a roll of tissues on the table in front of her, spoke only to confirm her name and that she could hear proceedings.

Mr Justice Goss, the judge in the original trial, set a provisional date of June 10 2024 for the retrial.

Unable to reach a verdict

Ben Myers KC, defending Letby, told the court she “maintained she was innocent”.

Letby, from Hereford, denied all the offences and formally lodged an appeal against her conviction at the Court of Appeal earlier this month.

Letby was accused of attempting to murder Baby K, who was born extremely prematurely at 25 weeks weighing just 1.5lb on Feb 17 2016.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on whether she attempted to kill the child.

Lawyers representing the families whose children’s cases the prosecution did not seek to retry said they were disappointed with the decision.

A spokesman for Switalskis Solicitors, which represents seven of the families, said: “At Switalskis, we are disappointed with the CPS decision to not proceed with a retrial on all of the cases.

“We believe that the families of the further alleged victims still have questions that are unanswered, and they deserve to know what happened to their children.

“On the back of the CPS decision those families will need to pursue other channels to get the answers, through both a civil case against the trust, and to be included as part of the inquiry now that the criminal route to answers has been closed.”

The law firm said the inquiry must look at governance and management at the Countess of Chester trust ,as well as staffing levels, equipment and the general state of repair of the unit.

Letby was arrested at her home in Chester in July 2018 and charged in November that year.

‘Extremely complex and difficult’

Her original trial began on October 4 2022 with the jury reaching its final deliberations on August 18 2023 and she was sentenced on August 21.

Jonathan Storer, Chief Crown Prosecutor, CPS Mersey-Cheshire, said the decision to seek a retrial had been “extremely complex and difficult”.

He added: “Before reaching our conclusions we listened carefully to the views of the families affected, police and prosecution counsel.

“Many competing factors were considered including the evidence heard by the court during the long trial and its impact on our legal test for proceeding with a prosecution.

“We have met with all the families affected by these decisions to explain how they were reached.”