Woman charged with baby murders

LONDON: A British female health worker has been charged with the murder of eight babies and trying to murder 10 others at a hospital in northern England, police said yesterday.

Lucy Letby (30) was charged over the deaths and ‘‘nonfatal collapses’’ at the neonatal unit at The Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.

Letby was first arrested in 2018 after a spike in the number of infant deaths at the hospital.

She was rearrested over the same alleged offences in 2019 and again this week

‘‘The Crown Prosecution Service has authorised Cheshire Police to charge a healthcare professional with murder in connection with an ongoing investigation into a number of baby deaths,’’ the police said in a statement.

Letby, from Hereford, faces eight charges of murder and 10 of attempted murder. — Reuters