Convicted multiple murderer Lucy Letby was “caught virtually red-handed” by a doctor as she displaced the breathing tube of a baby girl, a UK court has heard.
Letby, 34, is alleged to have attempted to murder the infant in the neo-natal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in February 2016.
Jurors at Manchester Crown Court were told that following a “very long” trial that ended last year, the defendant was convicted of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six more.
By the time she allegedly targeted a baby, known as Child K, the then nurse had already murdered five children and attempted to murder three others on various dates between June 2015 and October 2015.
She was also convicted last year of the attempted murders of twin boys in April 2016, an attempt to murder another boy in June 2016, and the murders of two triplet boys later that month.
Opening the case today, prosecutor Nick Johnson KC told the jury of six men and six women: “Putting it in a nutshell, we are saying that her status as a multiple murderer and attempted murderer is an important piece of the evidence that you can, if you wish, take into account when you are considering whether we have made you sure that she attempted to murder (Child K).”
Jurors in the previous trial failed to reach a verdict regarding the allegation.
Child K was born “extremely prematurely” in the early hours of 17 February 2016 after medics decided it was too risky to move her mother to a specialist hospital while in labour.
The baby was taken to nursery one – the unit’s intensive care room – while Letby was on duty caring for two babies in nursery two, the court heard.
At 3.30am, Child K’s designated nurse left the unit to see the baby’s mother in the delivery suite, the court heard, and was “not gone long”.
Mr Johnson said that Letby was alone in nursery one when senior consultant Dr Ravi Jayaram walked in and witnessed the infant’s collapse.
He said: “The designated nurse had left (Child K) connected to a ventilator that was breathing for her, and (Child K) was connected to another machine that was checking her heart rate and saturations.
“If either the heart rate or the oxygen saturations in the blood fall below a pre-determined level then alarms will sound, and if there was an issue, those alarms would have sounded but they did not because somebody had disabled them.
“So when Dr Jayaram walked into the nursery, he saw Lucy Letby was standing over (Child K) and her blood oxygen levels were falling but the alarm was not sounding. Not only that, but Lucy Letby was doing nothing.”
The prosecutor said that in those circumstances the “only reasonable thing” for a nurse to have done was either call for help and/or to use a facemask device to breathe for the child.
He went on: “The reason (Child K) was desaturating was because that ET (endotracheal) tube had been displaced and we suggest that the fact Lucy Letby was doing nothing and the fact the alarms were not sounding is evidence from which you can conclude that it was Lucy Letby, the convicted murderer, who had displaced the tube.
“We say Lucy Letby had been caught virtually red-handed by Dr Jayaram.”
Letby, of Hereford, watched on from the dock as the opening statement was delivered.
She denies one count of attempted murder.
