UK nurse Lucy Letby's murder convictions important in new trial, court told

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) -Former British nurse Lucy Letby's conviction last year for murdering seven babies and trying to kill six others is important evidence in her trial for the attempted murder of another newborn, a prosecution lawyer said on Wednesday.

Letby, 34, was found guilty last August of the numerous crimes committed between June 2015 and June 2016 while she was working as a nurse in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, northern England.

The former nurse is now on trial at Manchester Crown Court charged with one count of attempted murder of a further young baby girl, known as Child K, in February 2016. She denies the accusation.

Prosecutor Nick Johnson said the fact that Letby had previously been found guilty of crimes should not be the basis for the jury to convict her, but said it was significant as to what her intention was at the time of the alleged offence she now faced.

"In a nutshell, we are saying that her status as a multiple murderer and attempted murderer is an important piece of evidence you can, if you wish, take into account when you are considering if we have proved ... that she was attempting to murder (Child K)," Johnson said.

The prosecutor said Child K was born prematurely at 25 weeks and was connected to a ventilator and other machines monitoring her heart rate and oxygen levels.

Little more than an hour after the birth, while other staff were absent, Johnson said senior doctor Ravi Jayaram entered the room where she was being looked after to find the baby's breathing tube dislodged, alarms which should have sounded had become disabled, and Letby standing there "doing nothing".

That was because it was "Lucy Letby, the convicted murderer, who had displaced the tube", Johnson said.

He told the court that on two further occasions that night Letby interfered with the breathing tube after being "caught virtually red-handed" to give the impression there was a particular problem with the baby.

Child K died in a different hospital three days later, although the prosecution said this had nothing to do with the allegation against Letby.

Outlining her defence, Letby's lawyer Ben Myers said the baby had been born extremely premature and was fragile and unable to breath unaided. He said the allegation relied on the evidence from Jayaram, and if he was not truthful or accurate, there was no safe basis to convict his client.

He said Letby had maintained she was not guilty of anything, and her previous convictions, however dramatic and emotive, were not proof.

"The evidence ... does not support what is being alleged," Myers said. "It simply doesn't."

On Tuesday, the judge, James Goss, told the jury they must decide the case based on the evidence they would hear and nothing else. The trial is expected to last about four weeks.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Sarah Young, William Maclean)