Nurse to face court over baby deaths

They died between June 2015 and June 2016.

She said she started working at the unit after graduating.

A British female healthworker has been charged with the murder of eight babies and trying to murder 10 others at a hospital in northern England, police said on Wednesday.

The probe was ordered to examine deaths between June 2015 and June 2016 at the hospital's neonatal unit.

Ms Letby appeared before magistrates in Warrington, near Manchester, on Thursday morning and was remanded in custody to appear at Chester Crown Court on Friday, 13 November.

The 10 charges of attempted murder are each of potential victims under one year old, one count of which includes Maddie Freed. She is expected to go on trial next year, although it may be delayed until 2022 due to delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Families of the babies were also watching the proceedings via the same link at remote locations.

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The investigation into a number of suspicious deaths at the hospital's neonatal ward was first launched more than three years ago.

District Judge Nicholas Sanders said: "Today's court hearing is for a number of matters".

She said: "The crown will also stress there is substantial grounds to believe for her own protection this defendant should be remanded into custody".

Ms Letby was used as the face of a £3million appeal to build a new paediatric unit at the hospital in Chester in 2013.

She was previously arrested in 2018 and 2019, and both times was released on bail pending further investigation without being charged.

Letby, of Arran Avenue in Hereford, was arrested for a third time on Tuesday as part of the investigation into the hospital, which began in 2017.