FILE PHOTO: Former British nurse and convicted child serial killer Lucy Letby appears by video link during an appeal against her conviction for trying to murder a newborn baby, at the Court of Appeal in London, Britain, October 24, 2024, in this courtroom sketch. Courtesy of Julia Quenzler/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) -Three senior managers from the hospital where nurse Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering babies worked, have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, British police said on Tuesday.
Letby, 35, is serving life in jail after being found guilty of murdering seven newborns and attempting to murder eight more between June 2015 and June 2016 while working in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital (CoCH) in northern England.
The nurse, Britain's worst serial child killer of modern times, has maintained her innocence throughout but has been refused permission to appeal against her convictions. She has been told she will never be released.
Following her jailing, police began to investigate possible corporate manslaughter offences at the hospital, an inquiry that was later widened to consider if individuals might be guilty of gross negligence manslaughter.
Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, who is leading the investigation, said three unnamed members of the hospital's senior leadership team had been arrested on Monday.
They have subsequently been released on police bail pending further inquires.
"Both the corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter elements of the investigation are continuing and there are no set timescales for these," Hughes said in a statement.
He added that the police investigation into whether Letby had committed more crimes at the hospital and at another unit where she had previously worked was ongoing.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar and Kate Holton)
