Former nurse Lucy Letby, convicted last year of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others, told an English court on Monday that she had never harmed or intended to harm a child in her care.
Letby, 34, was found guilty last August of multiple murders while she was working as a nurse in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, northern England, between June 2015 and June 2016.
She is currently on trial at Manchester Crown Court for one count of attempted murder of another baby girl, known as Child K, in February 2016. The original jury had been unable to reach a verdict on this allegation.
On Monday, Letby was asked by her defence lawyer Ben Myers if she had attempted to kill Child K. "No," she replied, also denying any intent to harm the baby.
Asked if she accepted she had ever intended harming any baby in her care given her convictions, Letby firmly replied: 'No, I don't.'
Child K was born prematurely at 25 weeks and was connected to a ventilator and other machines monitoring her heart rate and oxygen levels.
Shortly after the birth, while other staff were absent, senior doctor Ravi Jayaram entered the room to find the baby's breathing tube dislodged, alarms disabled, and Letby standing there "doing nothing," according to the prosecution.
Prosecutor Nick Johnson told the court that on two further occasions that night, Letby interfered with the breathing tube after being "caught virtually red-handed" to give the impression there was a particular problem with the baby.
Letby repeatedly denied displacing the breathing tube and said she had no recollection of the events of that night.
She also said she could not recall researching the baby's name on Facebook two years later or why she would have done it.
When Johnson stated that Letby had denied being the sort of person who would kill babies but that she was just that, she replied, "No, I didn't."
The trial in the case is still ongoing.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Michael Gove
Jeremy Hunt
