Nurse Lucy Letby faces trial in October for killing five baby boys and two girls and trying to kill another five boys and five girls
- 32-year-old nurse from Hereford allegedly committed murders for a year
- The pre-trial hearing at the Manchester Crown Court was today ahead of the October 4 trial
- Accused of killing five boys, two girls, and attempted murder of five boys, five girls
A nurse charged with murdering seven babies and attempted murder of ten more will face trial on Oct. 4.
Lucy Letby, 32, of Arran Avenue, Hereford, is said to have spent a year committing murders while working in the neonatal unit at Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester.
The charges are that she killed five boys and two girls and tried to kill five boys and five girls between June 2015 and June 2016.
She denies all allegations.
At a pending trial hearing today, the defendant appeared before the Manchester Crown Court via video link from HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, speaking only to confirm her name during the 80-minute hearing.
The hearing dealt with issues prior to her trial, which cannot be reported.
Lucy Letby, 31, pictured, is said to have committed murders for a year while working in the neonatal ward of Countess of Chester Hospital, Chester
A court order prohibits disclosure of the identities of surviving and deceased children allegedly attacked by Letby, and prohibits identifying the parents or witnesses associated with the children.
Her trial, which is estimated to last six months in the same court, will begin on October 4.
At an earlier hearing in June, Letby filed a not-guilty verdict on one of the charges at a trial.
Letby was initially charged with murdering eight babies and trying to kill 10 more, but on June 10, Nick Johnson, QC at Manchester Crown Court, said the prosecution offered no evidence for any of the murders.
She allegedly killed five boys and three girls while working in the neonatal ward at Countess of Chester Hospital (pictured)
Mr Justice Goss has formally ordered that a verdict of not guilty be registered on that point.
Ms Letby was first detained by Cheshire Police in 2018 after a spike in deaths in her neonatal ward.
She was arrested again for the same alleged offenses in 2019 and again last year.
Police launched an investigation after the hospital raised concerns about the high number of deaths between March 2015 and July 2016 – said to be 10 percent above average.
An internal investigation was launched when medics discovered that premature babies had died from heart and lung failure but were unusually impossible to resuscitate.
The nurse appeared at Chester Crown Court Friday via a video link from HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Surrey, to conduct business ahead of her trial, which is undeclared (Pictured: Police at nurse Lucy Letby’s Chester home)