A British nurse, Lucy Letby, has pleaded not guilty to murdering five boys and two girls at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Letby also denied 10 other charges of attempted murder while caring for infants in the neonatal unit of the hospital, reported the BBC.
The 32-year-old standing trial in connection with the deaths of seven babies has been accused of being a “poisoner”.
She is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder another 10 between June 2015 and June 2016.
Lucy Letby was working as a midwife in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester hospital in Chester when she is alleged to have carried out the attacks between mid 2015 and mid 2016.
On Monday, she appeared at Manchester Crown Court in northwest England.
Speaking for the prosecution Monday, attorney Nick Johnson told Manchester Crown Court: “On the edge of the City of Chester is a hospital called the Countess of Chester and it is a busy general hospital.
“Within the facilities it provides is a maternity unit and within the maternity unit is a neonatal unit and the neonatal unit cares for premature and sick babies.
“In that sense, it is a hospital like so many others in the UK. But unlike many others in the UK, within the neonatal unit within the Countess of Chester, a poisoner was at work.”
Prior to January 2015, the prosecutor said, the hospital had infant mortality statistics “comparable” to other parts of the UK.
“However, over the next 18 months or so, there was a significant rise in the number of babies who were dying and the number of serious collapses,” he continued.
The rise was said to have been noticed by the consultants working at the hospital and they began searching for a cause for the trend.
The prosecutor said: “Their concern was that the babies who were dying had deteriorated unexpectedly, not only that but when babies seriously collapsed they did not respond to appropriate and timely resuscitation.”
There was an unexpected pattern observed with the surviving babies as their reaction and recovery did not accord with what the doctors would have expected, the prosecutor said.
“Babies that hadn’t been unstable suddenly deteriorated; suddenly babies that were sick but had been on the mend deteriorated for no apparent reason,” he continued.
“The consultants noticed the collapses and deaths had one common denominator: the presence of one of the neonatal nurses. That nurse was Lucy Letby.”
Several babies were allegedly poisoned with insulin and one child – known as Baby E – was murdered when Letby allegedly injected him with air, Manchester Crown Court has heard. It caused what doctors call an air embolus, which leads to strokes or heart attacks. Letby is also accused of pumping dangerous levels of milk into the premature children via feeding tubes or veins.
She allegedly targeted twins on more than one occasion – and in some cases one was murdered and their sibling survived.
Letby was questioned by police during interviews over why she had tracked the families of her alleged victims on Facebook, with prosecutors saying today that this was an ‘unusual interest’.
Opening the prosecution, Nick Johnson KC, said: “Sometimes a baby that she succeeded in killing was not killed the first or even second time she tried.
He added: “Sometimes they were injected with air – both intravenously [into the blood] and via the nasogastric tube [into the stomach].
“Sometimes they were injected with milk or some other fluid. Sometimes it was insulin. But the constant presence was Lucy Letby’.
The prosecutor continued: “The fact there were two deliberate poisonings with insulin will help you assess whether the collapses and deaths of the other children in the neonatal unit were because somebody was sabotaging them or whether these were tragic coincidences.
“The collapses and deaths were not naturally occurring tragedies.
“They were all the work of the woman in the dock who, we say, was the constant, malevolent presence when things took a turn for the worse for these children.”
There were said to be around 25 to 30 nurses working on the maternity ward and around 15 on the neonatal unit, some of whom were required to work night shifts.
“As a general rule of thumb, more nurses worked on a day shift than on corresponding night shifts and therefore there were fewer people around at night,” the prosecutor said.
“This was also true for parents, he added.
“Many of the events in this case occurred on the night shifts, although when Lucy Letby was moved on to day shifts the collapses and deaths moved to the day shifts,” he told the jury.
Once the consultants had been unable to find an explanation for the rise in deaths and collapses, the police were called, the court heard.
They decided to carry out a review with “experienced doctors” who had no connection to the Countess of Chester.
The specially trained ICU nurse was described as a “constant malevolent presence” on the Cheshire children’s unit where she allegedly killed and injured many vulnerable children – including twins.
She is accused of using night shifts to launch many attacks because she knew parents were off the neonatal ward.
Letby, allegedly tried to kill one baby girl three times and a baby boy three times – including two attempts in one day.
“Many of the events in this case occurred on the night shifts,” said Mr Johnson.
“Although when Lucy Letby was moved on to day shifts towards the end of this period the collapses and deaths moved to the day shifts”.
He said the defendant was born on January 4 1990 and was originally from Hereford.
Letby studied for her nursing degree at the University of Chester, he said, and at the time of the alleged events was a nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital and had been since she had qualified a few years earlier.
She worked throughout the period in consideration at the neo-natal unit and prior to her arrest was living at an address in Chester, the court heard.
Mr Johnson told the jury: “As you know we have 22 charges, 17 children. In all the cases Lucy Letby was either responsible for them as their designated nurse or she got involved with them despite not being their designated nurse.”
Family members of some of her alleged child victims sat in the public gallery listening as the names of the children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were read out.
Earlier, three members of security staff surrounded her as she stood up to enter her pleas as her parents John and Susan watched on. Her trial, which is due to begin this afternoon, will last up to six months.
Letby quietly repeated the words ‘Not guilty’ as each of the charges was read out to her by a clerk at Manchester Crown Court.
She was standing stock still in the glass-panelled dock of Court 7, her once blonde hair, now darkened, let down over her shoulders.
Fourteen jurors were sworn in to hear the trial. However, two of them will act as substitutes while the prosecution opening is being heard. Once that point has been reached the trial will continue with 12 jurors.
In addition to the seven murder charges, Letby faces a further 15 charges of attempted murder relating to 10 premature babies being cared for in the hospital’s neonatal unit.
All of the alleged murders and attempted murders took place in a 12-month period between June 2015 and June 2016.
Letby’s parents, John, 76, and Susan, 62, watched as proceedings were relayed to annexe courtrooms attended by families of the children involved and members of the press and broadcast media.
A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of surviving and deceased children allegedly attacked by Letby, and prohibits identifying the parents or witnesses connected with the children, Daily Mail added.
The children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will be referred to as Child A to Q.
The trial, which is expected to last six months, continues.