Lucy Letby to face re-trial over attempted murder of baby girl

Lucy Letby will face a re-trial in June next year, a court heard (Picture: AFP)

Serial killer nurse Lucy Letby will face a retrial on one charge of attempting to murder a baby girl, a court has heard.

A trial date has been provisionally set for June next year after the jury in her first trial was unable to reach verdicts on six counts of attempted murder in relation to five children.

Letby, 33, was sentenced to a whole life order after jurors convicted her of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit in 2015 and 2016.

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The prosecution will not seek a retrial on the remaining five counts of attempted murder.

In the first trial the five cases included three baby girls, known as Child H, Child J, and Child K, and two boys, Child N and Child Q.

Letby, 33, murdered three newborns and tried to kill a fourth in the space of just two weeks in June 2015 (Picture: Chester Standard/SWNS) The moment Letby, 33, was arrested in 2018 (Picture: AFP via Getty Images) Court artist drawing by Elizabeth Cook from last month of the nurse listening to the verdicts being read at Manchester Crown Court (Picture: PA)

Today at Manchester Crown Court, Nick Johnson, KC, for the prosecution, announced it would seek a retrial on one of those charges, the attempted murder of Child K.

Letby, from Hereford, denied all the offences and formally lodged an appeal against her conviction at the Court of Appeal earlier this month. 

The jury of seven women and four men in her trial could not reach verdicts on allegations that Letby attempted to murder three baby girls, known in court documents as Child H, Child J and Child K.

Court artist sketch of Lucy Letby reacting to the final questions from her barrister Ben Myers (Picture: PA)

On Monday, the Crown Prosecution Service said it wanted to pursue a retrial at the same court on one of the outstanding charges.

A provisional trial date of June 10, next year at the same court has been fixed, with an estimated length of two to three weeks.

Letby attended the hearing via videolink from a conference room at HMP New Hall in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

She sat behind a desk and spoke only to confirm her name and that she could see and hear the proceedings.

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