UK nurse Lucy Letby appeal on convictions for babies’ murder rejected

Serial child killer Lucy Letby has had an initial bid to challenge her convictions for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill another six refused by the Court of Appeal.

The 34-year-old former nurse lodged an application for permission to appeal against her convictions in September.

A judge has since refused her application after considering the case documents, a judicial spokeswoman said.

Letby was sentenced to multiple whole life orders in August.

The offences took place at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit where Letby worked between June 2015 and June 2016.

Typically, applications for permission to appeal against a Crown Court decision are considered by a judge looking at legal documents without a hearing.

If this is refused, people have 14 days to renew their bid for permission at a full court hearing before two or three judges.

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.

Letby, from Hereford, 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.

*This story was originally published on the BBC