Child killer Lucy Letby loses Court of Appeal bid to challenge convictions

Child serial killer Lucy Letby has lost her Court of Appeal bid to challenge her convictions.

At a two-and-a-half day hearing last month, Letby’s lawyers asked senior judges for approval to bring an appeal against her convictions for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others.

At a short hearing on Friday, Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde, said they had refused Letby’s request.

Dame Victoria said: “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.”

As the judges have declined to give the go-ahead for the challenge, this ruling marks the end of the appeal process for Letby.

The full reasons for the judges’ decision were not made public, with the full details of Letby’s appeal bid also unable to be published for legal reasons.

Dame Victoria previously said it could be reported that her appeal was argued on four points related to the judge at her trial refusing legal applications.

Lawyers for the former nurse, 34, were renewing efforts to bring an appeal before the panel of three judges.

In August 2023, Letby, of Hereford, was convicted of the murders and attempted murders of the babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

The jury in Letby’s trial at Manchester Crown Court was unable to reach verdicts on six counts of attempted murder in relation to five children.

She will face a retrial at the same court in June on a single count that she attempted to murder a baby girl, known as Child K, in February 2016.

A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children who were the subject of the allegations.