Lucy Letby retrial ‘should not have gone ahead due to overwhelming prejudice’
Child serial killer Lucy Letby's retrial for the attempted murder of a baby girl should not have gone ahead due to “overwhelming and irremediable prejudice” caused by media coverage of her first trial, the Court of Appeal has been told.
Letby is asking three senior judges 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.
The hearing is taking place before Lord Justice William Davis, Lord Justice Jeremy Baker and Mrs Justice McGowan.
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, 34, 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.
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.
Benjamin Myers said that media coverage before the retrial was “saturated with unadulterated vitriol towards Ms Letby”.
He continued that “the media coverage following trial one, particularly in the immediate aftermath” included “highly prejudicial and emotive public comment by police officers in charge of the investigation” while a retrial was still under consideration.
Letby, formerly of Hereford, watched the hearing via a video link from HMP Bronzefield, wearing a green dress.
A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children involved in the case.
The hearing before Lord Justice William Davis, Lord Justice Jeremy Baker and Mrs Justice McGowan, which is expected to conclude on Thursday, continues.
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