The jury in the trial of a nurse who is accused of murdering seven babies at an NHS hospital in North West England has been sent out to begin its deliberations.
Lucy Letby, 33, has been on trial since October 2022 at Manchester Crown Court and has denied all the allegations against her.
As well as murdering seven babies, Letby is accused of trying to murder 10 others, all during the course of her work on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, between June 2015 and June 2016.
Letby, from Hereford, is said to have deliberately harmed the infants in various ways, including by injecting air intravenously and administering air and/or milk into the stomach via nasogastric tubes.
The children’s nurse also allegedly added insulin as a poison to intravenous feeds, interfered with breathing tubes and inflicted trauma in some cases.
She denies doing anything harmful to any child and that the sudden collapses and deaths could have been due to natural causes, or for some unascertained reason, or from failure by others to provide appropriate care.
The defence said she was a “hard-working, dedicated and caring” nurse who loved her job.
Trial judge Mr Justice Goss has told the jury of eight women and four men to approach their deliberations in a “fair, calm, objective and analytical way”.
He told them to cast aside emotion or any feelings of sympathy or antipathy, as they consider their verdict.
Mr Justice Goss added: “You are under no pressure with time.”
