Lucy Letby, a British nurse who was sentenced to life in prison for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others, has lost her bid to appeal her conviction.
A three-judge panel of Britain’s Court of Appeal heard her application in April and released their decision on Friday, refusing her permission to challenge the verdict.
Letby, 34, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison last year for killing five baby boys and two baby girls at the neonatal unit of Countess of Chester Hospital in northern England between 2015 and 2016.
She was found to have injected the infants with insulin or air or force-fed them milk, causing their deaths. In one tragic case, she killed two siblings from a set of triplets.
The judge described her as Britain’s most prolific serial child killer of modern times. Letby’s appeal bid was rejected on all grounds, and associated applications were also refused. Judge Victoria Sharp stated, “Having heard her application, we have decided to refuse leave to appeal on all grounds and refuse all associated applications. A full judgment will be handed down in due course.”
Letby’s crimes were described as “chilling and calculated” by prosecutors, who said she had a “persistent and cruel” desire to cause harm to the babies in her care. Her actions were only discovered after a concerned colleague reported her suspicious behavior to hospital authorities.
The case has shocked the medical community and the public, raising questions about how such a prolific killer was able to go undetected for so long. Letby’s conviction and sentencing were widely welcomed as a just outcome for her heinous crimes.