Nurse Lucy Letby has been found guilty of murdering seven babies on a neonatal unit, making her the UK’s most prolific child serial killer in modern times.
The 33-year-old has also been convicted of trying to kill six other infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
Letby deliberately injected babies with air, force fed others milk and poisoned two of the infants with insulin.
She refused to appear in the dock for the latest verdicts.
The jury has delivered the verdicts over several hearings but they were not reportable until jurors were discharged.
Letby broke down in tears as the first guilty verdicts were read out by the jury’s foreman on 8 August after 76 hours of deliberations.
She cried with her head bowed as the second set of guilty verdicts were returned on 11 August.
Her mother sobbed loudly and was heard to say “this can’t be right – you can’t be serious” while the families of the babies cried and gasped.
Letby, originally from Hereford, was found not guilty of two counts of attempted murder.
The jury was unable to reach verdicts on six further attempted murder charges.
Nicholas Johnson KC, prosecuting, asked the court for 28 days to consider whether a retrial would be sought for these remaining six counts.
During the trial, which started in October 2022, the prosecution labelled Letby as a “calculating and devious” opportunist who “gaslighted” colleagues to cover her “murderous assaults”.
She was convicted following a two-year investigation by Cheshire Police into the alarming and unexplained rise in deaths and near-fatal collapses of premature babies at the hospital.
Before June 2015, there were fewer than three baby deaths per year on the neonatal unit.
Her defence team argued the deaths and collapses were the result of “serial failures in care” in the unit and she was the victim of a “system that wanted to apportion blame when it failed”.
The trial lasted for more than 10 months and it is believed to be the longest murder trial in the UK
One of the babies’ family members left the courtroom when the jury foreman said it was not possible to return verdicts on the remaining six counts, while a couple of jurors appeared upset.
As the judge discharged the jury, he told the panel of four men and seven women that it had “been a most distressing and upsetting case” and they were excused from serving on juries in the future.
Letby will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Monday.
She has indicated – via her legal team – that she does not want to attend her sentencing hearing or follow proceedings via a videolink from prison.
‘Hateful human’
The reasons for her non-attendance have not yet been disclosed by the judge.
The Ministry of Justice said the Lord Chancellor had been clear he wanted victims to see justice delivered and for all those found guilty to hear society’s condemnation at their sentencing hearing.
“Defendants can already be ordered by a judge to attend court with those who fail facing up to two years in prison,” the spokesman added.
Legislation to force convicted criminals to appear in court for their sentencing is currently being examined
The parents of twin brothers who were among Letby’s 13 victims have told the BBC the nurse was a “hateful human being” who had taken “everything” from them.
Letby murdered one of their baby boys, and tried to kill the other twin the following day.
They said their child, who is now seven years old, was badly harmed by Letby and has been left with severe learning difficulties and “a lot of complex needs”.
“There’s a consequence and he’s living with it,” his mother said.
Janet Moore, Cheshire Police’s family liaison officer, speaking on behalf of the babies’ families, said it had been a “long, torturous and emotional journey”.
“We are heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb,” she said.
“We may never truly know why this has happened.”
