Mother walked in on nurse Lucy Letby trying to kill baby, court told

Lucy Letby, 32, was trying to kill the five-day-old boy when his mother arrived on the neonatal ward with his milk, jurors were told.

The boy was one of seven babies allegedly murdered by Letby on the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester hospital, where she worked, between June 2015 and June 2016.

Letby denies seven counts of murder and 15 counts of attempted murder, relating to 17 babies in all.

The trial at Manchester crown court heard how the mother of premature twin boys, who can only be named as Baby E and Baby F, arrived at the unit with their milk.

The infant, who weighed 1.3kg (just under 3lbs) at birth, rapidly deteriorated and was pronounced dead less than five hours after Letby was seen attacking him, the jury was told.

The nurse allegedly administered a feeding bag laced with insulin to Baby F less than 24 hours after his sibling had died.

Although she was supposed to be caring for a baby in another room, Letby allegedly entered the room of a four-day-old boy and injected him with air through a nasogastric line to his stomach.

The defendant, from Hereford, listened from the glass-enclosed dock as the prosecution outlined its case on the second day of her trial on Tuesday. Relatives of some of her alleged victims sat in the public gallery metres to her right.

The trial continues.