Lucy Letby's latest attempt to challenge conviction DISMISSED by Court of Appeal

Lucy Letby's latest attempt to challenge one of her convictions has been dismissed by the Court of Appeal. The child serial killer, 34, was seeking approval to challenge her most recent conviction of attempted murder.

It followed her attempt to kill a newborn baby, known as Child K. Former neonatal nurse Letby was found guilty following a retrial in July at Manchester Crown Court.

At a hearing in front of three senior judges, Letby's lawyer claimed the retrial should not have taken place due to 'overwhelming and irremediable prejudice' caused by coverage of her first trial. But Letby's claim has now been dismissed by the Court of Appeal.

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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. Letby, who worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital, 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.

The retrial for the attack on Child K gave her a 15th whole life term. Thursday’s ruling marks Letby’s second appeal bid to be thrown out, after the Court of Appeal dismissed a challenge against her first set of convictions in May.

Benjamin Myers KC, for Letby, had told the court that the attempted murder charge should have 'stayed' as an 'abuse of process' due to the 'prejudice' caused by media coverage of the first trial in Manchester Crown Court. He said: "The learned judge was wrong to reject the application made by the defence at the outset of the trial to stay the indictment as an abuse of process.”

Mr Myers added: “It is an exceptional case, with exceptional media interest, and therefore exceptional unfairness is capable of arising, notwithstanding the safeguards that are often employed.... We are dealing with the impact of media coverage and public comment arising from the first trial, upon the second.”

Mr Myers said that media coverage before the retrial was 'saturated with unadulterated vitriol towards Ms Letby', which included coverage on the BBC’s Panorama and ITV’s Loose Women which 'described her as evil and depraved'. He continued that 'the media coverage following trial one, particularly in the immediate aftermath' included 'highly prejudicial and emotive public comment by police officers in charge of the investigation' while a retrial was still under consideration.

The court heard that comments by police and members of the Crown Prosecution Service created 'powerful prejudice against the defendant while simultaneously bolstering their own status', which Mr Myers said 'should offend the court’s sense of justice and propriety'. He added: “It really is not what should happen at all and in the circumstances of this case, bearing in mind all that had already happened, the public interest could be met by finding that there was an abuse (of process).”

The CPS opposed the appeal bid, with Nick Johnson KC stating in written submissions that it was 'misguided; and that the jury found Letby to be a 'multiple killer and habitual liar'. He said: “The application appears to rely on the huge volume of publicity as being of itself sufficient grounds on which to base an application to stay the indictment.

“It also leans heavily on the proposition that it is wrong for a witness to speak to the news media and that fact in itself taints the prosecution to the extent that it should be stayed. This is a misguided approach.”

In court, Mr Johnson said that 62 pieces of publicity had been provided by Letby’s barristers to support the appeal bid. Responding to Mr Myers’ claims, he said: “We do not, for a minute, accept that’s anything like a reasonable or accurate characterisation.

“What was said by police in the aftermath of the convictions in the first trial was reasonable and it accurately and moderately described the horrendous offences (for) which this applicant had been convicted.” Letby, formerly of Hereford, watched the hearing via a video link from HMP Bronzefield, wearing a green dress.

Her offences occurred at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit, where she worked as a nurse, between June 2015 and June 2016. Following her first trial, which ran from October 2022 to August 2023, the jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case of Child K.

A second jury took just three-and-a-half hours to convict her at the retrial at Manchester Crown Court. Jurors were told she targeted the 'very premature' infant during a night shift at the Countess in the early hours of February 17, 2016, by dislodging Child K’s breathing tube after she was moved from the delivery room to the unit’s intensive care unit.