Child serial killer Lucy Letby’s bid to challenge attempted murder conviction dismissed! B
Lucy Letby has been jailed for killing seven babies and trying to kill seven others.
Lucy Letby has been jailed for killing seven babies and trying to kill seven others (Image: Cheshire Constabulary)
Child serial killer Lucy Letby has had a bid to challenge a conviction for the attempted murder of a baby girl dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
Lawyers for Letby, 34, asked senior judges for approval to appeal against her most recent conviction after she was found guilty after a retrial in July of attempting to kill a newborn, known as Child K.
The former nurse’s lawyers told the Court of Appeal on Thursday (October 24) that the attempted murder charge should have been “stayed” as an “abuse of process”.
They argued this was due to “overwhelming and irremediable prejudice” caused by media coverage of her first trial, and that the retrial should not have gone ahead.
But three senior judges dismissed Letby’s bid at the conclusion of the hearing in London.
Letby was previously sentenced to 14 whole life orders for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others – with two attempts on one child – and was sentenced to a 15th whole life term for the attack on Child K.
Thursday’s ruling marks Letby’s second appeal bid to be thrown out, after the Court of Appeal dismissed a challenge against her first set of convictions in May.
Nick Johnson KC, acting for the Crown Prosecution Service, stated in written submissions that the appeal bid was “misguided” and the jury found Letby to be a “multiple killer and habitual liar”.
He argued: “The application appears to rely on the huge volume of publicity as being of itself sufficient grounds on which to base an application to stay the indictment.
“It also leans heavily on the proposition that it is wrong for a witness to speak to the news media and that fact in itself taints the prosecution to the extent that it should be stayed. This is a misguided approach.”
Benjamin Myers KC, representing Letby, told the court the attempted murder charge should have been “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.”
Mr Myers 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.”
The barrister added: “We are dealing with the impact of media coverage and public comment arising from the first trial, upon the second.”
Mr Myers said media coverage before the retrial was “saturated with unadulterated vitriol” towards Letby, which included coverage on the BBC’s Panorama and ITV’s Loose Women which “described her as evil and depraved”.
