English nurse Lucy Letby, sentenced to life in prison in August for killing seven newborn babies, will be retried for the attempted murder of another little girl, the British justice system said on Monday.
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The 33-year-old nurse was found guilty by the Manchester North Court in mid-August of the murder of seven premature babies and six attempted murders at the hospital where she worked in 2015 and 2016, making her the worst child murderer in of modern British history.
Lucy Letby, who maintained her innocence throughout the 10-month trial, was sentenced to an irreducible life sentence, a very rare sentence in English law.
However, the jury was unable to reach a verdict in six other murder attempts.
On Monday, prosecutors announced a new trial for one of those attempted murders of a little girl in February 2016. This process is scheduled to begin on June 10, 2024 and last two to three weeks.
Prosecutor Jonathan Storer said this decision about possible new trials was “extremely complex and difficult to make”.
“We have met with all families affected by these decisions to explain how we achieved this,” he added.
The trial shed no light on the nurse’s motivations.
Lucy Letby worked in the intensive care unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England.
The murders took place between June 2015 and June 2016. She injected premature babies with air intravenously and sent air or an overdose of milk into their stomachs via the feeding tube.
Lucy Letby attacked babies after their parents left, when the nurse in charge left, or at night when she was alone. She sometimes took part in joint efforts to save newborns and even helped desperate parents.
Transferred to administrative duty in June 2016, first arrested in 2018 and then in 2019, Lucy Letby was jailed in November 2020.