Oct. 12 (UPI) — Prosecutors in the U.K. said on Tuesday that a nurse, who is charged with murdering seven babies and attempting to kill 10 others, injected the children with air and fed them insulin.
Lucy Letby, 32, was a “constant malevolent presence” at the neonatal unit of Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England over six years ago, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Jurors also were told that a mother of twins walked in on Letby trying to kill one of her baby boys. Letby allegedly told the mother, “Trust me, I’m a nurse,” prosecutor Nick Johnson said during the trial.
The infant was “acutely distressed” and bleeding from the mouth, the court heard. The woman, who cannot be named, did not realize Letby was allegedly in the process of attacking her son.
A doctor present said he “had never seen a baby bleed like this” and that the child lost more than a quarter of his total blood volume, the court heard.
Known in court as Child E, the twin was one of seven babies Letby allegedly murdered in the hospital between 2015 and 2016. The twin’s sibling, Child F, is one of 10 children that she is charged with attempting to murder between June 2015 and June 2016. At least of one the surviving victims was left “severely disabled.”
Jurors heard that the baby’s parents made the decision to forego a post-mortem examination, a decision the on-call doctor and coroner’s office agreed with.
“As subsequent reviews have established that was a big mistake,” Johnson told the court.
Prosecutors also contend Letby took an “unusual interest” in the twins’ family, searching for them on social media two days after their baby’s death and several times over the following months.
Letby also allegedly entered the room of a 4-day-old boy and injected him with air through a nasogastric line to his stomach.
Letby has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The trial at Manchester Crown Court is estimated to last up to six months.
