Jury sent out in Lucy Letby retrial

The jury in the retrial of killer nurse Lucy Letby has been sent out to consider its verdict on an allegation that she attempted to murder a baby girl in her care.

The 34-year-old was convicted by another jury last August of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital's neo-natal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.

However a verdict on the allegation concerning the baby girl, known as Child K, could not be reached and a retrial was ordered on that single count.

Letby is said to have targeted Child K in the early hours of February 17 2016 after the infant was moved from the delivery room to the neo-natal unit shortly after her premature birth.

The prosecution at Manchester Crown Court says Letby deliberately interfered with Child K’s breathing tube through which she was being ventilated with air and oxygen

It is said that consultant paediatrician Dr Ravi Jayaram caught the nurse "virtually red-handed" as he entered the unit’s intensive care room and he then went on to intervene and resuscitate Child K.

Letby told the jury of six women and six men she has no recollection of any such event.

She denied doing anything harmful to Child K and added that she did not commit any of the offences of which she has been convicted.

Child K was transferred to a specialist hospital later on February 17 because of her extreme prematurity. She died there three days later, although the prosecution does not allege that Letby caused her death.

Letby, of Hereford, denies attempted murder.

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