LONDON (AP) — A British neonatal nurse who is serving a life sentence for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others was convicted Tuesday of trying to kill another infant in her care.
Lucy Letby, 34, tried to kill a baby girl known as Child K in February 2016 at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwestern England, a jury decided after a previous panel failed to reach a verdict on that count.
Letby, who testified that she never harmed a child, was found guilty in Manchester Crown Court last August of most of the crimes she was charged with that took place between June 2015 and June 2016 at the hospital’s neonatal unit.
On Tuesday, a different jury convicted her of trying to murder a “very premature” baby girl by dislodging her breathing tube in the early hours of Feb. 17, 2016.
The parents of the baby gasped and cried as the verdict was read after three and a half hours of deliberations.
Letby showed no emotion.
Senior Prosecutor Nicola Wyn Williams said Letby removed the baby’s breathing support and a doctor found her standing by doing nothing as the child struggled.
“Staff at the unit had to think the unthinkable — that one of their own was deliberately harming and killing babies in their care,” Williams said.
Letby is serving a life sentence with no chance of release.
