Killer nurse Lucy Letby fails in first bid to overturn conviction for murdering seven babies
30 January 2024, 18:43
Lucy Letby has failed in her first attempt to appeal against being convicted of murdering seven babies.
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The serial killer, who is serving 14 whole life orders, was refused an application to overturn them.
She is trying to appeal against all her convictions, which include the seven murders and attempted murder of six other babies at Countess of Chester Hospital.
Letby killed the infants between June 2015 and June 2016.
Attempts to appeal a crown court decision are usually heard by a judge who examines legal documents, and no hearing is held.
If they are refused, a convicted person has 14 days to launch a bid for a hearing before up to three judges.
Letby is facing a retrial in June on a single count of attempted murder of another baby, Child K, in February 2016.
Jurors could not reach a verdict on whether the 34-year-old from Hereford attempted to kill five children.
She is jailed at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, where it's been reported she has the keys to her own cell.
"We thought they were throwing away the key, and now it turns out she has her own," one family member of a Letby victim said.
As well as the plush cell, Letby is also said to have become prison friends with a mother who murdered her baby and a woman who helped her boyfriend cut up his step-sister's body.
She was said to have bonded with baby poisoner Michelle Smith and Shauna Hoare, who was convicted for her part in the killing of 16-year-old Becky Watts.
The three of them were said to have played board games together and sat with each other for meals.
They were “inseparable” and spent months enjoying sunbathing and karaoke together, an insider said.
