A 31-year-old nurse, Lucy Letby, is charged with killing eight babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital, UK, in a span of one year. She took help of a videolink for her appearance at Manchester Crown Court on Monday.
She allegedly killed five baby boys and three baby girls between June 2015 and June 2016 while working at the hospital. Letby of Arran Avenue, Hereford, is also in trouble for the attempted murder of another five boys and five girls, reported BBC.
On Monday, she wore a dark shirt and a pair of blue jeans, and spoke only when she was asked to confirm her name and that she could hear proceedings.
After a police investigation at the hospital began in 2017, Letby was held twice, once in 2018 and was left, and later she was again arrested in 2019.
The investigation started after the hospital noticed that the number of deaths between March 2015 and July 2016 was high which was said to be 10% above average, reported The Sun. An internal inquiry began when medical professionals found that premature babies had passed away after failure of organs like heart and lung.
The 25-minute hearing on Monday revolved around administrative and case-management issues. Letby will face the same court on Monday, May 17. Till then, she will remain in custody.
In another incident that happened last month, a 23-year-old woman was charged with killing her six-week-old twins, a boy and a girl. Officials said that the woman, Danezja Kilpatrick, is facing murder charges in the deaths of Dallis and Dakota Bentley, reported The New York Times.
When the babies were found in a Queens apartment, one of them was in a crib and was unresponsive with trauma to the body, said David P. Barrere, the Police Department’s chief of housing. The other infant was wrapped in a blanket and placed under the kitchen sink.
A mother and daughter who claimed to be Kilpatrick's neighbors described occasionally hearing adults arguing in the house but said that there was no evidence to prove that children stayed with them.
The neighbors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Kilpatrick had shifted in March and was related to the previous tenants. “I’m hearing people yelling and screaming. I never heard children,” said one of the women.
A spokesman for New York City’s child welfare agency, the Administration for Children’s Services, said that it was looking into the case along with the police.
