Lucy Letby's appeal bid dismissed by Court of Appeal

Former nurse and convicted murderer Lucy Letby has lost a bid in the British Court of Appeal to challenge her conviction for the attempted murder of a baby girl.

Letby's lawyers asked senior judges for approval to appeal against her most recent conviction after being found guilty following a retrial in July of attempting to kill a newborn baby known as Child K.

Lawyers for the former nurse told the Court of Appeal that the attempted murder charge should have been "stayed" as an "abuse of process" due to "overwhelming and irremediable prejudice" caused by media coverage of her first trial and that the retrial should not have gone ahead.

But three senior judges dismissed Letby's bid following the hearing in London.

Justice William Davis, sitting with Justice Jeremy Baker and Mrs Justice McGowan, said at the start of their ruling that they would "refuse permission" for Letby to challenge the conviction.

Letby, 34, was previously sentenced to 14 whole life orders for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others, with two attempts on one child, and was sentenced to a fifteenth whole life term for the attack on Child K.

The ruling marks Letby's second appeal bid to be thrown out after the Court of Appeal dismissed a challenge against her first set of convictions in May.