Convicted baby killer Lucy Letby’s recent retrial for the attempted murder of a baby girl should not have gone ahead due to “prejudice” caused by coverage of her first trial, the Court of Appeal has heard.

The 34-year-old former nurse is seeking approval to challenge her court conviction this July for trying to kill the newborn girl, known as Baby K.

Prior to the retrial, she had already been jailed for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

Benjamin Myers KC, defending, told the court her original trial in 2023 covered an “exceptional case with exceptional media interest”, which could lead to “exceptional unfairness”.

“We are dealing with the impact of media coverage and public comment arising from the first trial, upon the second,” he added.

He said the attempted murder charge should have “stayed as an abuse of process”, which means the prosecution should have stopped, due to “overwhelming and irremediable prejudice” after the first trial.

Mr Myers KC said “media coverage following trial one, particularly in the immediate aftermath”, included “emotive public comment by police officers in charge of the investigation”, which could prejudice potential jurors while a retrial over Baby K’s case was still under consideration.

Nick Johnson KC from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which opposes the appeal bid, stated in written submissions that it was “misguided” and the jury had found Letby to be a “multiple killer and habitual liar”.

“The application appears to rely on the huge volume of publicity as being of itself sufficient grounds on which to base an application to stay the indictment,” he said.

“It also leans heavily on the proposition that it is wrong for a witness to speak to the news media and that fact in itself taints the prosecution to the extent that it should be stayed.”

Three senior judges will decide whether the former nurse’s case can proceed to a full appeal following Thursday’s hearing.

Letby, formerly of Hereford, watched the hearing via a video link from HMP Bronzefield.

In 2023, she was jailed for murdering seven babies and trying to kill six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case of Baby K, but the retrial jury took three-and-a-half hours to convict her in July at Manchester Crown Court.

Jurors were told she targeted the “very premature” infant by dislodging her breathing tube after the baby was moved from the delivery room to the intensive care unit during a shift in the early hours of 17 February 2016.

At the sentencing for the crime, Letby claimed to the judge: “I’m innocent.”

A separate public inquiry into the events at the hospital between 2015 and 2016 is being held at Liverpool Town Hall.

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