Lucy Letby refused permission to appeal attempted murder conviction | Lucy Letby

Lucy Letby has been refused permission to appeal against a conviction for the attempted murder of a little girl at the hospital where she worked.

The former nurse, who is serving 12 life sentences, had sought to have the conviction overturned on the grounds that she could not receive a fair trial because of the “unadulterated viciousness” of the media coverage.

However, after a two-hour hearing at the Court of Appeal in London on Thursday, senior judges dismissed their claim.

Letby, now 34, had no reaction to the judges' decision and listened impassively via videolink from the UK's only all-women's prison, HMP Bronzefield in Surrey.

Letby was originally convicted of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England.

She was found guilty of the attempted murder of a seventh infant, known as Baby K, following a retrial in June.

Letby, who has always maintained her innocence, was refused permission to appeal last year's convictions.

The former nurse asked Lord Justice William Davis, Lord Justice Jeremy Baker and Ms Justice McGowan on Thursday to allow her to appeal against her conviction for the attempted murder of Baby K.

Benjamin Myers KC, for Letby, told the three judges that it was “unprecedented” that such “highly prejudicial and emotional” comments had been made about a defendant before a criminal trial.

He said police officers described the nurse as “evil, cruel and emotionless”, while a senior prosecutor described her as “devious, cold-blooded, calculated”. [and] manipulative” after her first trial last year.

Myers said on Letby's behalf that the trial judge, Mr Justice James Goss, was wrong to allow the trial to be reopened given the “overwhelming and irretrievable” public statements that followed their original convictions.

The lawyer said the appeal had focused only on this “very narrow” abuse of process argument and not on the broader concerns that had been raised about the evidence in recent months. He said the media had been “saturated with unadulterated vitriol” towards the former nurse ahead of the trial's resumption, citing 62 examples of hostile coverage, including a debate on ITV's Loose Women entitled: “Did Lucy Letby get nasty.” born?”

Myers said it was “unprecedented” for a police force, in this case Cheshire Police, to launch “devastating attacks” on a defendant at a time when a retrial was being considered.

He told judges: “Where the police launched a media campaign, as they undoubtedly did… in such emotionally charged circumstances, against a backdrop of multiple convictions for the most serious offenses and where they knew a retrial was being considered – say that.” “we.” is unfair and should offend the court’s sense of justice and decency.”

Nick Johnson KC, the prosecutor, said this was not a “reasonable or accurate” characterization of the media coverage.

He told judges that most of the disapproving public comments had been directed at hospital management for allowing Letby to remain in the neonatal unit despite senior doctors raising concerns.

Johnson also said that the vast majority of the media material cited by Letby appeared immediately after the convictions in August 2023, ten months before the retrial, and therefore “disappeared” from the memory of all jurors.

He cited as an example a “very, very pro-Lucy Letby” New Yorker article published in the weeks leading up to the retrial, which he said had received “significant response” when it was presented in Parliament Sir David Davis was mentioned.

Johnson said: “If this court ever wants evidence that the public had no influence on this jury, this is it. Because it was very pro-Lebyist and anti-law enforcement material that received a lot of attention online in the weeks and days before the trial.”

He added: “In this context one remembers the old epithet that today's front page is tomorrow's fish and chip packet.”