Heartbroken family of baby targeted by Lucy Letby 'may never truly know why'
The heartbroken family of a baby girl say they "may never truly know why" killer nurse Lucy Letby tried to murder her.
As a jury in a Manchester found Letby guilty of attempted murder, the parents of the girl - known for legal reasons as Child K - gasped and then cried in the courtroom.
Jurors had been told Letby, 34, dislodged the "very premature" baby's breathing tube during a night shift at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit in February 2016.
The youngster, born at 25 weeks and weighing just 692g, was said by the prosecution to be the "epitome of fragility."
About 90 minutes after her birth, Letby interfered with the tube through which Child K was being ventilated.
A consultant caught her "virtually red handed" as he entered the unit's intensive care room.
In a statement after the verdict, Child K’s family said: "Over the past seven to eight years we have to had to go through a long, torturous and emotional journey twice – from losing our precious newborn and grieving her loss to being told years later that her death or collapse might be suspicious.
"Today, justice has been served and a nurse who should have been caring for our daughter has been found guilty of harming her but this justice will not take away the extreme hurt, anger and distress that we have all had to experience.
"It also does not provide us with an explanation as to why these crimes have taken place.
"We are heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb. We may never truly know why this happened."
In August 2023, in a previous trial, Letby was convicted of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the unit between June 2015 and June 2016.
However, jurors back then could not reach a verdict on the allegation concerning Child K, so a retrial was ordered.
Letby denied she did anything harmful to Child K and added that she had not committed any of the offences she had been convicted of.
The killer nurse also denied the prosecution’s claims that she interfered with the infant’s breathing tube on two more occasions during the same shift to create the impression it was accidentally displaced.
Child K was later transferred to a specialist hospital, because she was born so premature, and died there three days later.
No post-mortem examination was conducted and the cause of death was certified as extreme prematurity and severe respiratory distress syndrome.Letby, of Hereford, will be sentenced for the attempted murder on Friday morning.
A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children involved in the case.