UK

Nurse killed five-day-old baby by injecting air into his stomach, UK court told

Lucy Letby (32) is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder another 10

Tue Oct 11 2022 - 12:50

A nurse charged with seven counts of murder killed a five-day-old baby by injecting air into his stomach through a nose tube, a UK court has heard.

Lucy Letby (32) is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder another 10 between June 2015 and June 2016 at the Countess of Chester hospital.

She denies the seven counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder.

Ms Letby allegedly killed the baby boy, child C, just six days after murdering for the first time, when she killed another baby boy, child A, and days later attacked his twin sister, child B, while working at the neo-natal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, the court was told.

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Child C died because the air injected into his stomach made him unable to breath and he suffered a cardiac arrest, Nick Johnson, King’s Counsel (KC), told the jury on the second day of the prosecution opening at Manchester Crown Court.

The boy had been born prematurely at 30 weeks on June 10th, 2015, weighing only 800 grams, but despite going into intensive care was in good condition.

Five days later, on the nightshift of June 14th, Ms Letby was supposed to be looking after another, more poorly baby, in another room, the court heard.

But she was the only person in the room when Child C suddenly and unexpectedly collapsed.

Mr Johnson continued: “Again, taking a step back, you can now see there was a pattern emerging. Lucy Letby was the only person working on the night shift when child C died who had also been working on either of the shifts when child A died and his twin sister child B collapsed.

“What we are going to see, as we progress, is that Lucy Letby’s method of attacking the babies in the neo-natal unit was beginning to develop.

“She had injected air into the bloodstream of the first twins, child A and B, and varied this approach by injecting air into child C’s stomach via the nasogastric tube,” Mr Johnson told the court. — PA

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