A nurse has denied only crying for herself during her murder trial rather than the babies she allegedly killed.

Lucy Letby is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others between June 2015 and June 2016.

The 33-year-old became tearful at Manchester Crown Court on Wednesday as she denied deliberately harming the babies while on duty at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit.

Letby later rejected prosecutor Nick Johnson KC’s suggestion that she had wept in court when talking about herself but not her 17 alleged victims.

Lucy Letby faces prosecution lawyer for first time – trial as it happened

Giving her fifth day of evidence, Letby told defence barrister Ben Myers KC that it was “really hurtful” when she was moved from the unit to an office role in July 2016.

She said: “I was being isolated and expected to lie about things that were going on. I had to pretend that I wanted to leave the unit and wanted to work in a different area.”

Letby launched a grievance procedure against her employers in September 2016, the court has heard.

She said: “At this point I didn’t know what to do. It was having a massive impact on all aspects of my life.

“It was emotionally very difficult. I was lonely, I was worried, I didn’t know what was going on.”

Murder allegations ‘beyond comprehension’

Letby said it was “devastating” when she learned of allegations that she had harmed children in her care.

She told the court: “It was beyond comprehension, I couldn’t understand how it was happening.”

When asked by Mr Myers if she had done anything to hurt anybody, she replied: “No.”

Letby then wiped away tears as she denied deliberately harming or intending to kill babies.

Cross-examining Letby, Mr Johnson asked her: “Is there any reason why you cry when you talk about yourself and do not cry when you talk about the dead and seriously injured children?”

Letby said: “I have cried when talking about some of the babies.”

The court has heard a total of 257 nursing shift handover sheets, containing some of the names of her alleged victims, were found during police searches following her arrest in July 2018.

She agreed with Mr Johnson that taking such sheets out of the hospital was not “normal practice” and they should be discarded in confidential waste.

The cross-examination of Letby will continue on Thursday.

She denies all the allegations.

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