Lucy Letby has been denied a retrial for the attempted murder of a premature baby girl.
The former neonatal nurse, 34, was seeking approval to challenge her most recent conviction for trying to kill the newborn, known as Child K, after being found guilty following a retrial in July.
Today, three senior judges decided the child serial killer cannot proceed to a full appeal following Thursday’s hearing at the Court of Appeal in London.
Following July’s conviction Child K’s family described the anguish of having to endure a ‘long, torturous and emotional journey – twice’.
Letby, formerly of Hereford, watched the hearing via a video link from HMP Bronzefield, wearing a green dress.
She was previously sentenced to 14 whole life orders after being found guilty at her first trial of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others, with two attempts on one child.
Lucy Letby has been denied a retrial for the attempted murder of a premature baby girl
The former neonatal nurse, 34, was seeking approval to challenge her most recent conviction for trying to kill the newborn, known as Child K, after being found guilty following a retrial in July
Benjamin Myers KC, for Letby, earlier today told the court that the attempted murder charge should have ‘stayed’ as an ‘abuse of process’ due to ‘overwhelming and irremediable prejudice’ caused by media coverage of her first trial.
He said: ‘The learned judge was wrong to reject the application made by the defence at the outset of the trial to stay the indictment as an abuse of process.’
He continued: ‘It is an exceptional case, with exceptional media interest, and therefore exceptional unfairness is capable of arising, notwithstanding the safeguards that are often employed.’
Mr Myers added: ‘We are dealing with the impact of media coverage and public comment arising from the first trial, upon the second.’
He said that media coverage before the retrial was ‘saturated with unadulterated vitriol towards Ms Letby’, which included coverage on the BBC’s Panorama and ITV’s Loose Women which ‘described her as evil and depraved’.
He continued that “the media coverage following trial one, particularly in the immediate aftermath” included “highly prejudicial and emotive public comment by police officers in charge of the investigation” while a retrial was still under consideration.
