Nurse accused of murdering 7 babies by poisoning them with insulin or air injections

A nurse has been accused of murdering seven babies by injecting them with insulin, milk or air during her time at a UK hospital.

The alleged murders took place at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. Lucy Letby, 32, has also been accused of attempting to murder ten others.

The matter came to light after the hospital authorities called in police to investigate the "significant rise," in infant mortality rates.

One of the babies was just 24 hours old when Letby allegedly injected him with air. It is alleged that she tried to kill his twin sister the next day, Manchester crown court was told.

A report in The Guardian says that Letby tried to kill some babies more than once using different methods.

Opening the prosecution case, Nick Johnson KC said that the infant mortality rate at the hospital was "comparable" to others in the UK before January 2015. But the hospital saw a significant rise in infant deaths over the next few months.

"Having searched for a cause, which they were unable to find, the consultants noticed that the inexplicable collapses and deaths did have one common denominator. The presence of one of the neonatal nurses and that nurse was Lucy Letby," said Johnson.

He added that most of the deaths occurred when Letby was on night shifts. "When Lucy Letby was moved onto the day shifts, the collapses and deaths moved to the day shifts."

Johnson told jurors that the Countess of Chester's neonatal unit was like any other in the UK, but "a poisoner was at work," at the hospital.

The court was told that sometimes the babies were injected with air down a tube into their circulation and sometimes they would be injected with insulin. On other occasions, they would be given too much milk, which may have had "catastrophic effects" on the newborns.

He added: "So, varying means by which these babies were attacked but the constant presence when they were fatally attacked, or collapsed catastrophically, was Lucy Letby." Meanwhile, Letby has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trial in the case continues.