Thread by @JudithMoritz

Lucy Letby’s defence case is now being outlined by her barrister Ben Myers KC

BM KC: It’s difficult, ladies and gentlemen to think of allegations that can be more upsetting than these allegations and that can strike harder at our desire to protect than these allegations

BM KC: The sympathy of everyone will rightly be with the families involved in this case. We all share the same feelings.

BM KC: "I start ladies and gentlemen on behalf of the defence by acknowledging how upsetting the allegations will be, and the very great sadness and loss that these families feel"

BM KC: Where we have such terrible allegations it would be terribly easy to let emotion take over and staggeringly unfair. It has to be said in the outset where there has been a lengthy investigation. There is a real danger that people will accept the prosecution theory of guilt.

Ben Myers KC: "All that we have so far is a theory of guilt based firmly on coincidence"

BM KC: "Sometimes what happened was the genuine deterioration of these children.... no one can really say why one particular baby deteriorated or died.. sometimes we say things have gone wrong.. She should not get the blame if she is not responsible"

BM KC: We suggest that the medical evidence is the key area in this case. We will touch on Miss Letby’s presence or absence at particular times and failings at the hospital that have nothing to do with her.

BM KC: We say Lucy Letby is a dedicated neonatal nurse who trained hard to become a nurse. We say she did her best to do so for many years and we say in no way did she want to hurt them.

The jury is again shown the note which police found in Lucy Letby's house. Her barrister Ben Myers KC points out other things written on it...

The note also includes scribblings saying
"Not good enough.
There are no words
I can’t breathe
I am an awful person I pay every day for that right now.
I will never have children or marry. I’ll never know what it’s like to have a family. Despair. I haven’t done anything wrong".

In capital letters around the note you can see the words HOPE PANIC FEAR also HATE - with a circle drawn around it.

Ben Myers KC tells the jury " we suggest that anyone who reads this fully with an ounce of understanding sees that it's the anguished outpouring of fear when she realised the enormity of what she was being accused of..

BM KC adds, "It's how she felt when she was accused of killing... what you see is anguish and not guilt".

Defence: There is no evidence of her actually doing harm to any child...
Using syringes to inject air. No, we say.
Tampering with bags of fluid, No.
Or in some way poisoning them
Physically assaulting children.
Smothering them..
No.

The jury looks again at a chart which compares who was on shift with times of the alleged attacks. It was first presented by the prosecution.

BM KC says the chart "Doesn’t show the actual health of the child concerned. It doesn’t show any problems that child had at birth. It doesn’t show the problems encountered in that period. It doesn’t include shortcomings in care that may have been the fault of others.."

Ben Myers KC tells the jury: "When we strip away the surrounding details of this case.. (her) facebook searches… amateur psychology... this case will come down to the medical evidence"

BM KC: "We are dealing with babies that are clinically fragile and preterm. Their conditions can change very swiftly"

There is also a question of whether this hospital should have been looking after all of these children and whether it did so to the required standard"

Ben Myers KC is resuming his defence opening speech at the start of the afternoon session. I am in the courtroom, with 3 other members of the media. More reporters are watching via video from a nearby annexe.

Ben Myers KC tells the jury that they will hear evidence during the trial from expert medical witnesses. He says "doctors do not always have the answers and neither do experts"

He also says "They might be drawn into a harm based explanation where that’s not the only explanation. An example of what's called confirmation bias".

Ben Myers KC: "The burden remains always on the prosecution to prove the case. You will see there is a good deal of challenge. Miss Letby has done nothing to intentionally harm these babies, and that applies to every count (on the indictment)".

BM KC: Re Baby A who the prosecution say was murdered through the injection of air, he says "we say that the care given to baby A was sub optimal. He may have collapsed either because of lack of fluids, or the various lines that were put into him and poorly sited".

Re baby B, the defence say "she was in a precarious condition at birth. There is nothing to do not support an injection of air or an airway being blocked".

Re baby C, whose death is said to have been caused by injection of air "we accept in this case as in other ones that it is a theoretical possibility, but it’s a very long way from saying yes, that’s what the evidence shows has taken place".

Defence re baby C: we say he was very premature, should have been treated at a more specialist hospital, was more vulnerable to infection, and there are a number of possible issues.

Defence on baby D: "Hospital failed to provide appropriate care, and this is accepted. She was not put on antibiotics when she should have been. There was a delay of hours. She was never able to breathe unable. Strong evidence that infection may have played a part in her death.

Defence on baby E, who's said to have been attacked in front of his mother, " There's no evidence air injection or direct trauma. No clear explanation but not a good enough reason to assume Lucy Letby was responsible"

Re babies F & L who are both said to have been poisoned with insulin, Ben Myers KC says "the prosecution are fixed on the theory that this is all to do with Lucy Letby" but he says there's nothing to establish that she did the alleged acts.

Re baby G, who Lucy Letby is accused of trying to murder on three occasions. Defence say she was a high risk baby with a history of abdominal distention and vomiting. Also that she showed signs of infection. They do not accept that Lucy Letby did anything to cause her to vomit.

Re baby H who Lucy Letby is twice charged with attempting to murder. Defence say her case is complicated by 'sub optimal treatment' she received after her birth, which the prosecution accepts. BM KC: "a good deal of harm was caused which had nothing to do with Lucy Letby"

Re baby I, who Lucy Letby is accused of murdering after 4 attempts. Defence say she was extremely premature and had a "series of medical problems that would have been inevitable".

Re baby J. Defence say @TheCountessNHS "was well out of its depth in knowing how to look after baby J and how to treat her. An assumption of deliberate harm is being used to direct blame at Lucy Letby when what there was, was inadequate care"

Re baby K (the prosecution say a doctor walked in on Lucy Letby as she attacked her). Defence say baby K shouldn't have been in hospital in Chester and there was "quite a lot" of sub-optimal care there. They say she should have been in a more specialist unit.

re babies L & M - twin boys who survived. Defence say "we are back in the territory of blame being put on Miss Letby because there is no other explanation"

re baby N who Lucy Letby is accused of trying 3 times to murder. He screamed for 30 mins. Defence say "there are many reasons why a baby will shout or scream. It is far more likely to be hunger... there was also sub-optimal hospital care. We disagree that Lucy Letby harmed him"

re baby O - one of two triplet boys Lucy Letby is accused of murdering - defence say there were signs of infection which could have played a part, and the prosecution case is not made out.

re baby P - another allegation of excessive air into the stomach. The defence agree that it could have happened, but do not agree with the way it's said to have happened.

re baby Q - the defence don't accept that air was injected. They say he had a bowel problem which is probably what led to him being unwell and vomiting.

Ben Myers KC: "Looking at where Miss Letby was and what she was doing. It’s important not to proceed on an assumption of guilt. A lot of the time the evidence can’t pinpoint where she was any more than where other people were... (1/2)

... She can hardly be expected to remember.. but then over and over again we get ‘she could have been attacking’ a child. We say there are many occasions when Lucy Letby was simply not there. Sometimes she was nowhere near". (2/2)

Defence: "She was a young nurse with no immediate family commitments, with some saying she had built her life around the neonatal unit. She was often called in to cover those sort of shifts, and she was ready to do so at short notice".

Defence: The issue to relating to other staff and the unit as a whole must be important. Nobody is going to expect perfection day in day out. We don't suggest that the drs and nurses on this unit do anything but their best. We say there are problems that had nothing to do with LL

Prosecution have said several babies improved when taken to more specialist hospitals. Defence say this is evidence of the Countess of Chester hospital being unable to deliver the care they needed. Ben Myers KC:"To turn it around and put it all on to LL is unfair and inaccurate"

Ben Myers KC says that in july 2016 after Lucy Letby was moved to non clinical duties the hospital was redesignated. He says, "I’m not going to use the expression downgraded, as all care is important, but it could no longer provide care at the level it did"

Lucy Letby's defence barrister says the nurse "would say she became a target of blame and wrongly so".

Ben Myers KC, defending: "This is a complex case. It’s not straightforward. In that dock is a young woman who says this is not her fault"

Ben Myers KC has finished outlining the defence case.

The jurors are being sent home for the day. Tomorrow they will be given iPads to view evidence on, and will be shown how to use them, before the first witnesses are called.

Thanks for following my tweets today. I'll be on @BBCNews @BBCRadio4 #bbcnewssix and #bbcnewsten tonight with reports on today's proceedings in court.