Moment Lucy Letby denies dislodging baby's breathing tube is discussed in latest episode of our podcast The Trial of Lucy Letby: Baby K

Killer nurse Lucy Letby told police the hospital she was working in was understaffed and denied dislodging the breathing tube of a very premature baby in a bid to murder her, a court heard on Friday.

The jury was shown video of interviews conducted by detectives after she was arrested on three occasions between 2018 and 2020.

In the latest episode of our podcast The Trial of Lucy Letby: Baby K, hosts Caroline Cheetham and Liz Hull hear the moment Letby denied dislodging Baby K’s breathing tube to police. Listeners can hear the audio voiced by actors for the podcast.

Letby, Britain's most prolific child killer, was last year sentence to life in prison after she was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six more while working as a neo-natal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital, in the North West of England.

There were six charges the jury in the original trial couldn’t decide on, so Letby is back on trial with a different jury for one of those charges - the attempted murder of a premature baby girl who was born 15 week early, known as Baby K.

Baby K was born 15 weeks early aged 25 weeks in February 2016 when her mother went into labour unexpectedly. She weighed just 1lb 8oz. 

In episode four of the Mail's podcast which focuses on this retrial Caroline and Liz see, for the first time, the footage of Letby facing questions from Cheshire Police detectives which was shown to the new jury yesterday as part of the prosecution case.

In the three separate video clips Letby denied dislodging Baby K’s breathing tube and she said she could not remember the baby girl collapsing. 

She also told officers the unit could not cope with the number of babies and Baby K was so premature that she would have needed one to one care. 

The first interview took place around 2.30pm on July 5, 2018 - two days after Letby was arrested for the first time. 

The officer asks her about what she remembers from the night Baby K collapsed and presses her on why Dr Jayaram felt uncomfortable knowing she was with the baby girl.

The second video shown to the jury shows Letby being interviewed around 10am on June 12, 2019 - almost a year after her first arrest.

She was asked again about the moment Baby K collapsed and what would have happened to Baby K if Dr Jayaram had not walked in when he did.

The third interview took place at 8.45pm on November 10, 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

She was shown a text message she had sent to her best friend, another nurse who worked on the unit, at around 9.15pm on the day Baby K was born.

On Friday, Letby's convictions, including the names and birth dates of the 13 babies she murdered or tried to murder between June 2015 and June 2016, were read to the jury at Manchester Crown Court.

The six men and six women were also told the jury in her original trial were discharged after failing to reach a verdict in Baby K's case, before a retrial was ordered.

Letby, formerly of Hereford, denies attempted murder of Baby K. Her barrister, Ben Myers KC, said the child was 'clinically fragile' due to her extreme prematurity.

Listen to The Trial of Lucy Letby: Baby K, wherever you get your podcasts now.