Child serial killer Lucy Letby has lost her appeal against a conviction for attempting to murder a baby, after complaining to judges about media coverage dubbing her “evil”.
The 34-year-old former nurse is serving a whole life prison sentence after she was convicted of seven murders and seven attempted murders against babies in her care.
In a second trial, Letby was found guilty of another charge of attempted murder of a girl, baby K, and received another whole life sentence.
Letby claimed the second trial was unfair and should have been stopped due to “unadulterated vitriol” aimed at her after her original convictions.
She took aim at prosecutors, police, media organisations, the former Prime Minster Rishi Sunak and even Loose Women panelists, as she was called “evil”, “cold-blooded”, and “calculated”.
Letby lost an appeal bid in May against the first set of convictions, and mounted a second challenge at the Court of Appeal – against the final conviction for attempted murder.
But judges led by Lord Justice William Davis have now rejected her application for leave to appeal.
He said the trial judge, Mr Justice Goss, had dismissed Letby’s attempt to have the second trial stopped due to media coverage, and the Court of Appeal must look at whether his decision was wrong.
Pointing out Mr Justice Goss oversaw the whole Letby case, so had full knowledge of the evidence, he added: “His experience as a criminal judge is unrivaled - his judgement must be afforded very considerable respect.”
Delivering the ruling, Lord Justice Davis said: “We don’t accept the applicant’s argument. The outcome of the first trial undoubtedly led to an unusual amount of publicity and online debate.
“This was because of the fact that the case was extraordinary. Because the extent of publicity was much greater than is normally the case would itself not generate prejudice.
“For a neo-natal nurse to murder seven babies in her case was a startling fact. Even if no police officers or commentators provided other commentary or said anything on Letby, the mere fact of her offending would have created that effect.”
He pointed out that jurors in the second trial were told about her past convictions, and relied on the “fade factor” of reporting between the two cases.
Prosecutors fought the appeal bid, insisting Letby had a fair trial and many of the articles complained about were focused on hospital mismanagement or fair comment on serial killer convictions.
Letby’s barrister, Benjamin Myers KC, told senior judges on Thursday that she did not have a fair second trial because of the barrage of publicity when she was first found guilty of murders.
“This is an exceptional case with exceptional media interest, and therefore exceptional unfairness was capable of arising, notwithstanding the safeguards often employed to deal with the matters we raise”, he said.
“It may be easy for some to forget we are going back to a media environment of August and September 2023.
“At that point, it was saturated with unadulterated vitriol towards Ms Letby.
“From high political office to police, representatives of the prosecution, and across every media outlet, the questions of whether the trial that followed could be fair is necessarily considered in that context.”
Letby’s crimes occurred at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit, where she worked as a nurse, between June 2015 and June 2016.
Mr Myers highlighted to the court comments by then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, reporting on Sky News and Channel 4 in which Letby was dubbed “devious, cold-blooded, calculated, manipulative and cunning”, and remarks by CPS representatives “against the background of intense hostility towards her”.
He offered up a selection of media coverage, including a Daily Mail podcast on Letby, a Talk TV interview, and an episode of BBC’s Panorama.
Mr Myers said Letby was dubbed “evil” and “depraved” on ITV’s Loose Women, which included a feature titled “Was Lucy Letby born evil”.
Mr Myers said reporting in 2023 happened as a retrial over the death of Baby K was being considered, and ultimately went ahead earlier this year.
He said one of the key witnesses made “self-serving” remarks in public, while he accused police officers who had pursued Letby of “highly prejudicial and emotive public comment”.
Letby sought leave to appeal her conviction on the grounds that the trial was wrongly not stopped as an abuse of process due to the publicity.
This appeal centred on her conviction for trying to murder baby K, a “very premature” infant during a night shift at the Countess of Chester Hospital in the early hours of February 17 2016 by dislodging Child K’s breathing tube after she was moved from the delivery room to the unit’s intensive care unit.
Her trial heard how Letby was caught “virtually red-handed” by a colleague, consultant paediatrician Dr Ravi Jayaram, as he entered Nursery 1 at about 3.45am, who intervened and resuscitated Child K.
Dr Jayaram told jurors he saw “no evidence” that she had done anything to help the deteriorating baby as he walked in and saw her standing next to the infant’s incubator.
Letby said she had no recollection of the event described by Dr Jayaram and did not accept it had taken place.
Letby, dressed in an olive green dress, appeared on a videolink from prison for the appeal hearing, and when asked to confirm her name she replied: “Yes, that’s correct.”
The court was told she continued to maintain her innocence of all the crimes.
The Crown Prosecution Service opposed the appeal bid, with Nick Johnson KC stating in written submissions that it was “misguided” and that the jury found Letby to be a “multiple killer and habitual liar”.
He told the court they dispute the characterisation of publicity after the first trial as “unadulterated vitriol aimed at the defendant”.
“We don’t accept that as being anything like a reasonable or accurate characterisation”, he said.
“What was said by the police in the aftermath of the convictions in the first trial was reasonable.
It accurately and moderately described the horrendous offences of which the applicant had been convicted.”
Mr Johnson also pointed out that Letby’s murder and attempted murder convictions were entered into evidence at her second trial.
Picking over the media coverage that forms part of Letby’s appeal, Mr Johnson said some articles focused on management of the hospital rather than Letby, as well as factual statements about the trial, calls for a public inquiry, and explanations of the witness process.
He said the Loose Women show had concentrated primarily on whether CCTV should be introduced to neo-natal units.
Mr Johnson dryly pointed to one of the newspaper articles complained about, in which her home had been described as “beige”.
“What is worse, being called a serial killer of babies – something that has been proved – or being called beige? It certainly doesn’t qualify as vitriol.”
And he also highlighted the New Yorker article which circulated online ahead of the second trial, which was “pro-Letby” but - he said - demonstrates that publicity does not have an impact on the fairness of trials.
Lord Justice William Davis, Lord Justice Jeremy Baker and Mrs Justice McGowan heard an hour and three quarters of legal submissions, and deliberated for 25 minutes before reaching a decision.
