Serial killer nurse Lucy Letby will face a retrial on a charge of attempting to murder a baby girl, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced.
The CPS said it would seek a retrial against the 33-year-old over one of six counts of attempted murder in relation to five children.
Letby was sentenced to a whole life order after she was convicted of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit in 2015 and 2016.
But the jury in Manchester Crown Court was unable to reach verdicts last month over the attempted murder of five children.
On Monday, the Crown Prosecution Service said it wanted to pursue a retrial at the same court on one of the outstanding charges – that Letby attempted to murder a baby girl, known as Child K, in February 2016.
A provisional trial date of June 10, 2024 at the same court has been fixed, with an estimated length of two to three weeks. Judge Justice Josh KC said the wait for the trial was due to a “huge backlog of cases” in the courts.
Letby attended the hearing via videolink from a conference room at HMP New Hall in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. She spoke only to confirm her name.
It follows the news that Letby will seek an appeal against her convictions.
The Department of Health has previously said that an independent inquiry will be held into Letby’s case, and will examine “the circumstances surrounding the deaths and incidents – including how concerns raised by clinicians were dealt with”.
Jonathan Storer, Chief Crown Prosecutor, CPS Mersey-Cheshire, said: “These decisions on whether to seek retrials on the remaining counts of attempted murder were extremely complex and difficult. Before reaching our conclusions we listened carefully to the views of the families affected, police and prosecution counsel.
“Many competing factors were considered including the evidence heard by the court during the long trial and its impact on our legal test for proceeding with a prosecution. We have met with all the families affected by these decisions to explain how they were reached.”
