Thread by @JudithMoritz

The trial of Chester nurse Lucy Letby is beginning at Manchester Crown Court. She is charged with murdering 7 babies, and attempting to murder another 10 at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015-June 2016. She denies all the charges. Coverage on #BBCNews

I will report lines from the court once the case opens. A reminder to followers not to comment/offer opinion about the trial, in order to prevent legal prejudice.

The jury has just been sworn. The judge, Mr Justice Goss tells them "Offences of this nature are bound to provoke an instinctive reaction of horror. We all have emotions. You must put your emotions to one side and judge the evidence calmly, rationally, fairly and dispassionately"

The jury has been told that the trial may last up to six months.

Nick Johnson KC has opened the case for the prosecution. He tells the jury that the 17 babies who are victims in the case "were not victims of naturally occurring tragedies, but of the work of the woman in the dock who was the constant malevolent presence" at the neonatal unit.

The jury hears that the Countess of Chester Hospital "is a hospital like so many others within the UK, but unlike others a poisoner was at work between June 2015 - June 2016"

Jury told:“Before Jan 2015, stats for the mortality of babies in the Chester neo-natal unit were comparable to other like units.But over the next 18 months or so there was a significant rise in the number of babies who were dying, & in the no of serious catastrophic collapses."

Prosecution say "Having searched for a cause, the consultants noticed that the inexplicable collapses and deaths did have one common denominator – the presence of one of the neonatal nurses. That nurse was Lucy Letby"

I am sitting in the courtroom, listening to the prosecution case being opened by Nick Johnson KC. I am not able to report the names of the babies who feature in this case, as they are protected by court order. Instead, I (and other media) will refer to them by alphabetical letter

Nick Johnson KC (NJ KC) is starting to outline the various ways in which the prosecution allege Lucy Letby murdered, or tried to murder babies on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester hospital

NJ KC:"Sometimes they were injected with air – both intravenously (into their bloodstream) and via the nasogastric tube (into their stomachs). Sometimes they were injected with milk or some other fluid. Sometimes it was insulin. But the constant presence...was Lucy Letby"

Court is shown a grid which lists the names of the all the babies who feature in the case, and of the nurses who worked at @TheCountessNHS neonatal unit. It also contains the dates of the alleged offences. The only staff member who was present on every occasion was Lucy Letby.

NJ KC: "This is a complicated case.. Sometimes Lucy Letby tried to kill the same baby more than once – and sometimes a baby that she succeeded in killing was not killed the first or even second time that she tried, or in one case even the third time".

The jury is being told about Lucy Letby, who is sitting in the dock with its glass fronted wall. They hear that she is now 32 years old. She comes originally from Hereford and studied for her nursing degree at Chester University.

She was a nurse at @TheCountessNHS and had been so since she had qualified a few years earlier. She worked in the Neonatal Unit [“NNU”] though she had done some of her training elsewhere.

Court told that, with one or two exceptions, the babies in this case were accommodated in the intensive care or high dependency sections of the neonatal unit.

The jury is being told about the first of the babies who Lucy Letby is accused of murdering. Baby A was born weighing 1.66kg, and was a twin. Lucy Letby is also accused of trying to kill his sibling (baby B) who survived.

Baby A was born 9 weeks early but is said to have been stable and doing well at one day old, when his care was handed over from a day-shift nurse to Lucy Letby who was on the night shift.

Jury told that doctors observed an odd discolouration on baby A's abdominal skin - with flitting patches of pink over blue skin that seemed to appear and disappear... Neither doctor had ever previously seen such skin discolouration.. (1/2)

... but this proved to be the first of a series of similar presentations on the skin of babies suddenly and catastrophically collapsing at the CoCH NNU over the succeeding months. (2/2)

Prosecution: "We allege that it is a hallmark of some of the cases in which Lucy Letby injected air into the circulations of some of these small babies. Baby A died within 90 minutes of her coming on shift".

Prosecution medical expert concluded that baby A was well immediately before the fatal collapse. He suggested that the collapse was consistent with a deliberate injection of air or something else into his circulation a minute or two prior to deterioration... (1/2)

This happened at a time when only Lucy Letby was there. A second expert agreed that baby A did not die as a result of a natural disease process. (2/2)

Jury hears that it was to be more than 3 years after the death of baby A before Lucy Letby was arrested and interviewed. The first time was on 4th July 2018, then subsequently on 11th June 2019 and 10th November 2020.

When first interviewed, Lucy Letby was asked what she had thought at the time of baby A's death. She said she had wondered whether the bag of fluid (given to him) “was not what we thought it was”.

Later, it was put to her that she could have injected air into baby A's IV line. She said it would be very hard to do so, and that all staff were aware of the dangers of doing this.

Jury hears that Lucy Letby tracked the family of baby A on Facebook.
Prosecution: "We suggest it is an unusual interest and we will see that on occasions she searched in quick succession for several of the families of children she had attacked".

Jury told that the day after baby A died, his twin sister (baby B) was stable. But about 28 hours after her brother had died her incubator alarm sounded.She was not breathing. She was resuscitated and recovered. Prosecution expert says she "was subjected to some form of sabotage"

Court hears that baby B now lives abroad with her parents and does not appear to have suffered any adverse consequences of the severe oxygen starvation that happened to her.

Pros say that at the time of baby B's collapse, Lucy Letby was the only nurse who signed paperwork for administering fluid, when there should have been 2 sigs. She also signed the observations chart for baby B just before the collapse, though she wasn't the designated nurse.

Court hears that when Lucy Letby's home was searched after arrest, a handover sheet for baby B was found - along with paperwork for other children, including those she's accused of offences against, and those she isn't.

Prosecution:"Taking a step back for a moment, here you can see that we have twins who were born prematurely but in pretty good condition. No one expected them to face grave problems, yet both suffered unusual symptoms within a short time of each other (1/2)

The collapses and skin mottling were the result of air being injected into their bloodstream. The first injection caused the death of baby A – the second the dangerous collapse of his sister baby B. We say that there is no plausible alternative explanation" (2/2)

Court has finished for the day. Back tomorrow 1030am. Coverage this evening on @BBCNews @BBCRadio4 #bbcnewssix #bbcnewsten and online bbc.co.uk/news