A British nurse considered to be one of the U.K.’s most prolific child serial killers in modern times has been refused permission to appeal her convictions over the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of another six.
Lucy Letby on Friday lost her latest attempt to seek to overturn the convictions in a decision taken by England and Wales’ Court of Appeal. The 34-year-old was found guilty in August of fatally attacking children in her care at a neonatal unit at a hospital in northwest England between 2015 and 2016.
Judge Victoria Sharp said at a brief hearing Friday the court had “decided to refuse leave to appeal on all grounds and refuse all associated applications,” according to the BBC. The judge said a full judgment will be provided at a later date.
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Following her conviction, Letby was sentenced to 14 whole-life prison terms—a rare punishment typically reserved for Britain’s most serious offenders.
The decision to deny Letby’s legal challenge comes after the publication of a New Yorker investigation by Rachel Aviv earlier this month which raised questions about some of the evidence used in the trial which led to her conviction. Restrictions on the article meant that readers in Britain were unable to access it in the same way they can easily view other pieces from the magazine.
A spokesperson for the outlet told Press Gazette: “To comply with a court order restricting press coverage of Lucy Letby’s ongoing trial, The New Yorker has limited access to Rachel Aviv’s article for readers in the United Kingdom.”
Letby is set to face a retrial on a single count of attempted murder in June relating to an alleged attack on a baby girl in 2016.
