Lucy Letby denied permission to appeal attempted murder conviction

11092024 - Lucy Letby - Granada
Letby went before the Court of Appeal on 24 October for approval to challenge her conviction for trying to kill the newborn, known as Child K, following a retrial in July, for which she was sentenced to a 15th whole life order.

  • ITV Granada correspondent Mel Barham has been following proceedings

Child serial killer Lucy Letby has been refused the right to challenge her conviction for the attempted murder of a baby girl.

Letby, 34, went before the Court of Appeal on 24 October for approval to challenge her conviction for trying to kill the newborn, known as Child K, following a retrial in July, for which she was sentenced to a 15th whole life order.

However, three senior judges have refused to grant permission for Letby to launch an appeal against her conviction.

Letby worked as a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester hospital. Credit: PA Images

Benjamin Myers KC, for Letby, told the court that the attempted murder charge should have “stayed” as an “abuse of process” due to “overwhelming and irremediable prejudice” caused by media coverage of her first trial.

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.”

He continued: “It is an exceptional case, with exceptional media interest, and therefore exceptional unfairness is capable of arising, notwithstanding the safeguards that are often employed.”

He added: “We are dealing with the impact of media coverage and public comment arising from the first trial, upon the second.”

Letby, from Hereford, 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.

A bid to appeal against those convictions was dismissed in May.

The hearing took place at The Royal Courts of Justice. Credit: PA Images

Letby’s 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, but a second jury took just three-and-a-half hours to convict her at the retrial at Manchester Crown Court.

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.

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