In a retrial at Manchester Crown Court, a jury found Letby guilty of the murders of seven newborns and the attempted murders of six more. Letby was found guilty last year.
The indictment against her at her first trial was that she tried to kill newborn K, the preterm newborn, at the Countess of Chester Hospital in February 2016. The jury was deadlocked on the issue.
Letby had moved the baby’s breathing tube, according to the prosecution, and was “virtually red-handed” when the doctor entered the room.
Dr. Ravi Jayaram, a consultant pediatrician, testified before the jury that he witnessed Letby standing next to the baby’s incubator and doing nothing while her blood oxygen levels plummeted to potentially fatal levels.
Where there should have been an alarm, there was silence.
The prosecution claimed that once the baby recovered, her tube was dislodged twice more that evening. Letby had attempted to create the impression that the baby did this on a regular basis.
After being taken to a specialized neonatal unit at 25 weeks gestation, the baby passed away three days later.
It was not claimed that Letby’s activities were the reason for her demise.
After just three and a half hours of deliberation, the jury’s verdict caused the parents of Child K to gasp and then sob.
