Nurse Accused of Killing 7 Infants in Neonatal Unit Stands Trial

The British healthcare employee, 32-year-old Lucy Letby, appeared at Manchester Crown Court docket in northwest England to face trial for the deaths of seven infants she has been accused of murdering and the tried homicide of 10 others.

Mother and father of the victims had been current for the court docket proceedings on Monday.

On behalf of the prosecution, legal professional Nick Johnson started by noting that Countess of Chester hospital was a “busy normal hospital like so many others within the UK”.

“In contrast to many different hospitals,” he mentioned, “throughout the neonatal unit on the Countess of Chester Hospital, a poisoner was at work”.

“Previous to January 2015, the statistics for the mortality of infants within the neo-natal unit on the Countess of Chester had been akin to different like items,” Johnson mentioned per BBC.

“Nonetheless, over the subsequent 18 months or so, there was a big rise within the variety of infants who had been dying and within the variety of critical catastrophic collapses.”

An inquiry was made into the sudden rise of deaths and extreme medical problems. Based on Johnson, hospital investigators discovered a “widespread denominator” — Letby. Even as soon as Letby was given a distinct shift the sample continued, the prosecution claimed.

Johnson then alleged that Letby murdered infants by numerous means — both by injecting air into the bloodstream, feeding with insulin, or an excessive amount of milk.

“So various means by which these infants had been attacked, however the fixed presence after they had been fatally attacked or collapsed catastrophically was Lucy Letby.”

“The collapses of all 17 youngsters involved weren’t ‘naturally occurring tragedies,'” the prosecutor mentioned per The Occasions. “They had been all of the work, we are saying, of the lady within the dock, who we are saying was the fixed, malevolent presence when issues took a flip for the more severe for these 17 youngsters.”

Nurse Letby was initially arrested on suspicion of committing the crimes in 2018 however was bailed “pending additional enquiries.” She was arrested once more a yr later “on suspicion of homicide in relation to the deaths of 8 infants and the tried homicide of 6 infants” and “the tried homicide of three further infants,” in line with Cheshire Police.

Jurors had been instructed the trial might final six months.