That's all for todaypublished at 16:17 British Summer Time 17 May 2023
Judith Moritz
Inside the courtroom
The court is finishing for the day now and the jury are being sent home.
The cross examination of Lucy Letby will continue tomorrow.
Summary
Lucy Letby, who is accused of killing seven babies and the attempted murder of 10 others, is being cross-examined by the prosecution for a third day
She has denied taking enjoyment from seeing babies in distress
The prosecution alleges the nurse attacked 17 babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016 - charges she denies
Today is Lucy Letby's seventh day in the witness box at Manchester Crown Court - on her first day she told jurors the charges against her were "sickening"
On Thursday, she told the jury that there was a conspiracy between doctors to blame her for problems at the hospital
Several of the parents of babies who the nurse is alleged to have murdered and attacked have been in court to watch proceedings
The court has previously heard Letby was removed from frontline duties in July 2016 after doctors raised concerns
That's all for todaypublished at 16:17 British Summer Time 17 May 2023
Notes were still held in confidence, nurse Letby sayspublished at 16:15 British Summer Time 17 May 2023
Judith Moritz
Inside the courtroomLucy Letby says it's normal practice to discard handover notes in confidential waste.
Nick Johnson KC asks why she didn't return 250+ notes to the unit or destroy them. She says it wasn't intentional.
She says "I know they were at my home address, but they were still held in confidence"
Nick Johnson: "held in confidence? They were in a bin bag in your garage.... Do you obey the rules when it suits you?" Lucy Letby answers "no".
Lucy Letby says she didn't keep handover sheets on purposepublished at 16:07 British Summer Time 17 May 2023
Judith Moritz
Inside the courtroomThe trial has heard that when police searched Lucy Letby's house they found 257 handover sheets relating to babies on the neonatal unit.
She has previously said that she didn't keep them on purpose.
Nick Johnson suggests she's lying about this, and took them with her when she moved house.
She denies lying about it.
Lucy Letby has previously said that she took handover notes home in the pockets of her nurses uniform.
Nick Johnson asks her what she did with all the notes every time she washed her uniform. She says she'd put them aside in various places around her house.
Prosecution asks Lucy Letby about doctor's evidencepublished at 16:06 British Summer Time 17 May 2023
Judith Moritz
Inside the courtroomEarlier in the trial the jury heard from a doctor, Ravi Jayaram. He says that he walked in to find Lucy Letby after she removed the breathing tube from one of the babies.
Yesterday, Lucy Letby said this never happened. Nick Johnson now says that this is tantamount to accusing the doctor of lying.
Lucy Letby agrees that she is accusing Dr Jayaram of misleading the jury. She denies that she is lying.
The scene inside the courtroompublished at 16:03 British Summer Time 17 May 2023
Judith Moritz
Inside the courtroomSeveral of the parents of babies who the nurse is alleged to have murdered and attacked are in court to watch today's proceedings.
Lucy Letby is wearing a black suit and blue shirt. She's sitting in the witness box with a prison officer on either side of her.
Her parents are sitting in the public gallery just behind her.
Nick Johnson KC is standing with his arms folded, looking down at Lucy Letby who's sitting in the witness box, almost next to him.
The red-robed judge, Mr Justice Goss is sitting above them.
The jury of 8 women and 4 men are directly opposite nurse Letby.
Prosecution begins its cross-examinationpublished at 16:01 British Summer Time 17 May 2023
Judith Moritz
Inside the courtroomNick Johnson KC gets on his feet, he's leading the prosecution.
Lucy Letby is crying in the witness box.
He asks Lucy Letby why she cries when she's talking about herself but not about the babies. She replies that she has cried whilst talking about the babies.
This is Lucy Letby's 5th day in the witness box. So far she has only been questioned by her own barrister, Ben Myers KC who is leading the defence.
What has Lucy Letby said in her defence?published at 15:58 British Summer Time 17 May 2023
For the last two weeks, Lucy Letby has been giving evidence in her defence.
On her first day in the witness box, she wept as she talked about her job at the Countess of Chester Hospital - she said it was "her life".
She had "always wanted to work with children", she said, and had been traumatised by her arrest.
She was asked about hand-written notes found at her house during a police search - which the jury has seen.
One of them says: “I am evil, I did this”.
She explained that she had written it“ because I felt at the time I had done something wrong and I thought I’m such an awful, evil person… that I had made mistakes and not known.”
The defence has since outlined its arguments with regard to each baby involved in the case, one by one.
What the prosecution has saidpublished at 15:56 British Summer Time 17 May 2023
To give you an idea of what nurse Letby is accused of, here’s a snapshot of some of what the prosecution say. They allege she:
- Inserted air into one baby's stomach via a nasogastric tube
- Used a medical tool inappropriately, causing one baby to bleed internally
- Overfed a baby with milk through a nasogastric tube
You can read more about each child’s case by heading here.
A warning, though, the details can be distressing to read.
What's happened in this case so far?published at 15:54 British Summer Time 17 May 2023
Image source, PA MediaThis trial began last October, with officials saying it could last some time.
For more than six months, the 12 jurors at Manchester Crown Court have been hearing evidence related to Lucy Letby.
We first heard from the prosecution, who set out their evidence in regard to the 17 babies involved in the case, a summary can be found here.
The defence has now also set out its arguments - this included hearing from Lucy Letby herself.
She is now being cross-examined by prosecutors.
When that section of the trial is complete, the defence will have a chance to ask one final set of questions before the judge summarises the evidence and asks the jury to retire to consider its verdict.
Welcomepublished at 15:50 British Summer Time 17 May 2023
Thank you for joining us for our coverage of the next stage of Lucy Letby’s trial.
She is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
She denies all the charges.
Lucy Letby is now being cross-examined by the prosecution.
We have our correspondent Judith Moritz in court, and we'll bring you the latest here.