Convicted murderer Lucy Letby ‘never intended or tried to harm baby in her care’, trial hears

Convicted multiple murderer Lucy Letby has told a jury she has never intended or tried to harm any baby in her care.

Letby is on trial at Manchester Crown Court accused of the attempted murder of a baby girl, known as Child K, while she was working a night shift at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit on 17 February 2016.

The 34-year-old was convicted in August 2023 by another jury of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the hospital between June 2015 and June 2016, but a verdict could not be reached on the allegation involving Child K.

The prosecution say consultant paediatrician Dr Ravi Jayaram walked into the unit’s intensive care nursery room, less than two hours after Child K’s birth, and said he saw Letby standing next to the incubator “doing nothing”, as the infant’s blood oxgyen levels dipped but no monitor alarms sounded.

On Monday Letby, wearing a black jacket and navy blue top, gave evidence at her retrial.

She swore an oath on the Bible and confirmed her full name, date of birth, her age and that she was 26 at the time of the alleged incident.

When Ben Myers KC, defending, asked if she attempted to murder Child K or intend to harm her, Letby repeatedly replied: "No."

Mr Myers said: “Do you accept you have ever intended to hurt any baby in your care?”

Letby replied: “No I don’t.”

Mr Myers went on: “Do you accept that you have ever tried to harm any baby in your care?”

“No,” she said.

Letby told the jury of six women and six men that she did not recall the particular events said to have taken place in nursery one, the intensive care room, at about 3:50am.

Letby said she saw Child K in nursery one but 'could not be specific on timings'.

Mr Myers said: “You know the allegation, based on the evidence of Dr Jayaram, is that he says he came in and (Child K) was desaturating to the low 80s and you were standing there doing nothing and no alarm was sounding, you understand that?”

“Yes,” said Letby.

Mr Myers said: “Do you recall any incident where Dr Jayaram comes in when something like that was happening?”

Letby replied: “No.”

Mr Myers said: “Do you have any recollection of Dr Jayaram coming into nursery one when you were there by yourself?”

Letby said: “No I don’t.”

She denied saying Child K had just started to desaturate and replied "no" when asked by Mr Myers if she remembered being there at all at that time in those circumstances.

He added: “We have seen that there is a Facebook search on 20 April 2018 for the name (Child K’s surname)?”

Letby said: “Yes.”

Mr Myers said: “Why were you searching for (Child K’s surname) on your Facebook a little over two years after this event is said to have taken place? ”

Letby replied: “I’m not sure. I don’t have recollection of doing that at the time or now why I did.”

Child K was transferred to a specialist hospital later on 17 February because of her extreme prematurity.

She died there three days later, although the prosecution does not allege Letby caused her death.

Letby, of Hereford, denies a single count of attempted murder.

A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children involved in the case.

Opening the case, prosecutor Nick Johnson KC alleged Letby was also responsible for two further desaturations of Child K during the same shift in a bid to give her colleagues the impression the infant was habitually displacing her own breathing tube.

Mr Myers said: “The allegation is that some time after 6:10am (Child K) has a desaturation which you caused by interfering with the tube. Did you do that?”

Letby said: “No I didn’t.”

The defendant said she did not have any recollection of the third desaturation said to have taken place at about 7:30am, around the time of shift handover.

When asked whether she interfered with her tube "to make it look like she was unwell and desaturating for no apparent reasons", she replied "absolutely not.”

Mr Myers went through her answers to detectives when she was questioned about Child K following her arrest.

When asked about Child K’s tube slipping and her becoming desaturated, she said she was relying on the medical notes made by another nurse.

She told police she could not herself actually recall being alone in the room with Child K, she said.

And she said she only remembered Child K because, at 25 weeks gestation, it was an unusual child to have on the unit.

Mr Myers asked Letby about a detective asking her: "Explain what you were doing when Dr Jayaram walked into the nursery".

Mr Myers continued: “The question is put to you like a fact. Had you actually agreed you were there in the first place?”

“No,” Letby replied.

Mr Myers continued quoting a detective’s question to Letby: “‘Tell me what would have happened if Dr Jayaram had not walked in when you were stood by the incubator’.”

He continued: “Have you ever agreed there was ever a time when he walked in to see you stood by the incubator?”

Letby replied: “No.”

Mr Myers said the police officer then asked Letby why she did not “call for help” when Child K’s tube became dislodged and her oxygen levels began to fall.

He continued: “Were you agreeing you were there in the first place to call for help?”

“No,” Letby again said.

Mr Myers asked why Letby had suggested Child K may have “self corrected” with time after her oxygen levels had dropped.

Letby said: “I was trying to be helpful at the time. They were asking me questions, which I believed were factually correct.

Mr Myers said: “Do you accept you were in the nursery not helping Child K?”

Letby replied: “No, I don’t.”

The trial continues.