Who were the newborn babies murdered by killer nurse Lucy Letby?

Nurse Lucy Letby has been found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six more while working on a neonatal unit.

She went on a year-long killing spree while working on unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire.

A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of surviving and deceased children allegedly attacked by Letby, and prohibits identifying the parents or witnesses connected with the children.

Instead, each child was given a letter they were referred to in court.

Nick Johnson KC, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court, each of the individual cases of the children involved in the trial, while Ben Myers KC, defending Letby, told the court his client denied all the allegations against her.

So who are the babies involved and what happened?

Baby A

A baby boy, murdered at on 8 June 2015 by Letby who injected air into his bloodstream.

The baby boy had been born a minute after his twin sister, at 8:31pm. He was born prematurely, delivered by Caesarean section, and was admitted to the intensive care room in the neonatal unit of the hospital.

He was in good condition and did well, and by the following morning was breathing "in air" without extra oxygen help and given expressed breast milk.

Letby came to work at 7:30pm for a handover from another nurse who looked after baby A during the day shift.

After the 30-minute handover, at 8pm Letby became the designated nurse for baby A, and at 8:26pm she called a doctor to the baby’s incubator and the on-call consultant was also alerted.

Both doctor and consultant noted an "odd discolouration" on the boy’s skin, patches of pink over blue skin that appeared and disappeared.

Mr Johnson said this became a "hallmark" of some of the cases in which Letby had injected air into the bloodstream of a victim.

Despite resuscitation attempts, baby A died at 8:58pm, within 90 minutes of Letby coming on duty.

Four medical experts reviewed the case. The first said baby A was a "well infant" before his death.

He said the fatal event was consistent with a deliberate injection of air or something else into the boy’s circulation a minute or two before his collapse.

A second expert said Baby A’s collapse was not a natural event and added the "most likely reason" was air administered deliberately, "by someone who knew it would cause significant harm".

A pathologist found it would be reasonable to conclude that air in Baby A’s circulation was most likely caused by air administration through one of two tubes already attached to the baby’s body.

Baby B

The twin sister of Baby A, who Letby tried to kill shortly after midnight on 9 June 2015.

Child B required some resuscitation at birth but recovered quickly and stabilised.

But shortly before midnight, the court heard, it was noted her blood/oxygen levels had fallen and that nasal prongs providing additional oxygen had been dislodged.

At about 12:30am the baby's alarm monitor sounded as the youngster was seen to be blue in colour, was not breathing and was limp. An on-call registrar was alerted and the child recovered quickly once resuscitated.

Prosecutor Mr Johnson told the court "mercifully" Baby B does not have appear to have suffered any adverse consequences.

He added an expert paediatrician, who reviewed the case, had concluded child B was subjected to "some form of sabotage" and she may have been injected with a dose of air.

Mr Johnson told jurors: "Here you can see we have a pair of twins who were born prematurely but in pretty good condition.

"No-one expected them to face grave problems, yet both suffered unusual symptoms within a short time of each other."

Baby C

A baby boy, murdered on 14 June 2015 after Letby injected air into his stomach through a nose tube, making him unable to breathe.

He suffered a cardiac arrest.

The boy had been born prematurely at 30 weeks, weighing only 800 grams, but despite going into intensive care was in good condition.

Four days later, on the nightshift of 14 June, Letby was supposed to be looking after another, more poorly baby, in another room.

But, after Baby C's designated nurse briefly left the room, he suddenly and unexpectedly collapsed, and when his nurse returned, she found Letby was the only person in the room.

He recovered very quickly, but just 15 minutes later he collapsed again - where Letby was seen at his cot side once more.

He stopped breathing again, but despite a crash call, this time he did not recover.

Mr Johnson said an independent pathologist - when reviewing the case - concluded baby C died because his breathing became compromised and he suffered a cardiac arrest.

The prosecutor told jurors: "If you are trying to murder a child in a neonatal unit, it is a fairly effective way of doing it. It doesn’t really leave much trace."

He said just hours after Child C died the defendant searched on Facebook for the youngster’s parents.

Mr Johnson suggested from the timings that this was "one of the first things she did when waking up" after she had earlier finished her shift at about 8am.

Baby D

A baby girl murdered on 22 June 2015 after Letby intentionally injected air into the bloodstream.

The baby girl, who was the only baby not born prematurely, lost her colour and became floppy in her father's arms shortly after she was delivered by caesarean section after her mother's waters broke early.

Manchester Crown Court was told she should not have been in the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit, and was only there because of a mistake made by the hospital.

After being born with a suspected infection because of the mistake, she responded well to treatment until she deteriorated and collapsed three times in the early hours of 22 June.

During the second collapse the youngster was "distressed and crying", said the barrister.

The child's monitor alarm sounded on the third collapse and she could not be revived.

Letby sent "many messages" to friends in the wake of Baby D's death and the preceding deaths and collapses in which she suggested they could all clearly be explained as natural causes.

The defendant later told police she could not explain why she had searched on Facebook for Baby D's parents in the aftermath of her death.

She was also asked about another message in which she had referred to an "element of fate" being involved.

Mr Johnson told the jury: "We say, tragically for [Baby D] her bad luck or fate was the fact that Lucy Letby was working in the neonatal unit that night."

Baby E

A baby boy, murdered on 4 August 2015 by an injection of air into the bloodstream.

Baby E was an identical twin boy, and was supposed to be born at Liverpool Women's Centre.

But on the day of their birth the hospital was full so their mother was sent to the Countess of Chester.

Mr Johnson said one evening Baby E's mother visited her son in the neonatal unit.

Mr Johnson said: "We say that she interrupted Lucy Letby who was attacking [Baby E], although she did not realise it at the time."

When the mother arrived, her son was "distressed" and bleeding from the mouth, the court heard.

The mother recalled Letby tried to reassure her, he said, and told her a registrar would review the youngster's condition and she should leave the unit.

"'Trust me, I'm a nurse'. That's what she told (the mother)," said Mr Johnson.

"We suggest she was fobbed off by Lucy Letby."

Baby E went on to suffer significant blood loss later in the evening, say the Crown, with a treating registrar saying he had never encountered such a large bleed in a small baby.

Following baby E's death in the early hours of 4 August, the Crown said Letby made "fraudulent" nursing notes which were "false, misleading and designed to cover her tracks".

Letby went on to show a "very unusual interest" in baby E's family, said Mr Johnson, with social media searches on them two days after the youngster's death and again on numerous occasions in the following months, including "even on Christmas Day".

Child F

A baby boy, the twin brother of Baby E, who Letby attempted murder on 5 August 2015.

The day after allegedly murdering Baby E, Letby used insulin for the first time to poison a baby by trying to murder baby E's twin brother, Baby F.

Baby F was prescribed a TPN (total parenteral nutrition) bag of fluids and later suffered an unexpected drop in his blood sugar levels and surge in heart rate.

Checks on his insulin levels were carried out which showed, "conclusive evidence" someone had given Child F insulin to poison him.

Mr Johnson said no other baby on the neonatal unit was prescribed insulin so Baby F could not have received the drug intended for some other child by negligence.

Mr Johnson added that Letby had injected insulin into the TPN bag before it was hung up to give to the child.

He added: "You know who was in the room and you know from the records, who hung the bag.

"It can't have been an accident."

He told the jury there was only one, "credible candidate" for the poisoner.

"The same person," he said, "Who was present at all the unexplained collapses and deaths at the Countess of Chester Hospital on the neonatal unit."  

Baby G

A baby girl, who Letby attempted to murder twice, on 7 and 21 September 2015.

The youngster was born "exceptionally premature" up to four months earlier at a different hospital and weighed just 1lb 2oz.

In mid-August she was transferred to the Countess of Chester's neonatal unit and was "doing well" in the following weeks, prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said.

At 100 days after the youngster's birth nurses put up banners and made a cake to mark the milestone.

But, in the early hours of the following day the prosecution claim Letby fed an excessive amount of milk to Baby G through a nasogastric tube and also, probably, injected air.

The consequence, said Mr Johnson, was that Baby G - despite her size - vomited out of her cot and on to a nearby chair and the floor. She had suffered a collapse and was not breathing.

Baby G was moved back to the hospital where she was born and quickly recovered before she returned to the Countess of Chester on 16 September.

On 21 September, on the morning of the day shift, after being fed milk via a nasogastric tube, allegedly by Letby, she then projectile vomited twice, and stopped breathing briefly.

The baby was later connected to a monitor that measures oxygen saturations and heart rate levels.

Nick Johnson KC told the Baby G had been left "severely disabled" as a result.

He told jurors: "These were not naturally occurring or random events.

"They were deliberate attempts to kill using slightly different methods by which Lucy Letby sought to give the appearance of chance events in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital."

Letby later told police she had no recollection of undertaking Facebook searches on baby G’s parents, including one on 21 September - the date the Crown say she made two attempts to murder the youngster.

Baby I

A baby girl murdered on 23 October 2015 after Letby tried four times to kill her.

Letby injected air into baby I’s stomach through a nasogastric tube - the first incident said to have been just days after attempting to murder Child H.

In the second incident, the court heard a night shift colleague recalled Letby was standing in the doorway of a darkened room in the neonatal unit when the defendant remarked baby I looked pale.

The fellow nurse turned on the light and saw child I "appeared to be at the point of death and was not breathing".

The baby girl collapsed and required chest compressions in the early hours of 23 October 2015 but was successfully resuscitated and recovered to the extent she was showing signs of hunger, the court heard.

Less than a hour later the child’s monitor alarm sounded and a colleague of Letby responded and found her standing by the child’s incubator.

The nurse wanted to intervene as child I was "distressed", but Letby said "they would be able to sort it".

Baby I then collapsed and died after attempts to revive her, led by a registrar, were unsuccessful.

An expert paediatrician who reviewed baby I’s case had concluded the youngster’s deteriorations were consistent with the deliberate administration of a large amount of air into her stomach via a nasogastric tube.

The medic also believed that on the final occasion the child had been injected with air into her bloodstream which led to her "screaming", followed quickly by her collapse.

Letby then sent the baby girl's parents a sympathy card.

Baby L

A twin boy, brother of Baby M, who Letby attempted to murder on 9 April 2016.

The court was told the attempts were in similar circumstances to two other twin boys, Baby E and Baby F.

Eight months earlier Letby attempted to murder Baby F by poisoning him with insulin.

On 9 April 2016, Letby was working a day shift when she is said to have given an unauthorised dose of insulin to Baby L.

Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC told the court Lucy Letby had failed to kill Baby F so decided to increase the dose of insulin administered to child L.

He said the defendant went on to agree the insulin could not have been given accidentally but said she was not responsible.

Her only explanation was it must have already been in one of the bags he was receiving.

Baby M

Twin boy, brother of Baby L, who Letby attempted to murder on 9 April 2016.

The court was told the attempts were in similar circumstances to two other twin boys, Baby E and Baby F.

Eight months earlier, it is claimed Letby murdered Baby E by injecting air into his bloodstream and attempted to murder his brother, Baby F, by poisoning him with insulin.

On 9 April 2016, as Letby was working a day shift she is said to have given an unauthorised dose of insulin to baby L and, while that attack was underway, she turned her attentions to baby M by administering air into his circulation.

Mr Johnson said Baby M came "close to death" after his heart rate and breathing dropped dramatically without warning but improved on the night-shift that followed and went on to make a speedy recovery.

Baby N

A baby boy Letby attempted to murder on 3 June 2016.

He was born weighing 3.6lbs.

His clinical condition was described as "excellent" although he did have mild haemophilia - a blood disorder.

Mr Johnson said this meant Letby believed, wrongly, that his haemophilia gave her "cover" to attack him - because if he bled it would be put down to the condition.

At 1:05am, the day-old baby suffered a sudden lowering of his blood oxygen levels to life-threatening levels.

Unusually for such a small, premature baby he was crying and screaming.

The child recovered after emergency assistance from doctors and nurses.

Independent medical experts said the baby’s sudden deterioration was consistent with some kind of "inflicted injury" or him having received an injection of air.

Baby O

A baby triplet - brother to Baby P - Letby murdered on 23 June 2016.

Baby O was in good condition and stable up until the afternoon of 23 June when he suffered a "remarkable deterioration".

A post-mortem examination found unclotted blood in his body from a liver injury and a coroner certified death on the basis of natural causes and intra-abdominal bleeding.

Mr Johnson KC said: "Of course it would not occur to him (the coroner) that a nurse would have assaulted a child in the neonatal unit."

An independent pathologist had since reviewed the case and was of the opinion the liver injury was not the result of chest compressions in resuscitation.

Mr Johnson said the most likely cause was an impact-type trauma, adding: "In brutal terms, an assault."

The expert also concluded Baby O had fatefully received excessive amounts of air into the bloodstream and through a nasogastric tube.

Baby P

A baby triplet - brother of Baby O - Letby murdered on 24 June 2016 – the day after his brother died.

Baby P suffered an "acute deterioration" before preparations were put in place to move him to another hospital.

Just before the planned transfer, a doctor was said to be "optimistic" about his prospects but then "all of a sudden Lucy Letby said to him something like 'he’s not leaving alive here, is he?'", said Mr Johnson.

Shortly after, Baby P collapsed and died.

A coroner recorded the death as "prematurity" but independent experts who were tasked with reviewing Baby P’s case said the most likely cause was air injected into his stomach which compromised his breathing.

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